TOKYO, March 23 (Xinhua) -- Yasunori Kagoike, a school operator in a land deal scandal in Japan, testified under oath on Thursday that he received 1 million yen (8,900 U.S. dollars) from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife Akie.
Kagoike, head of Moritomo Gakuen school, said in the House of Councillors Budget Committee that Akie gave him an envelop containing 1 million yen on behalf of her husband before giving a speech at the kindergarten run by the school operator on Sept. 5, 2015.
He said that the prime minister's wife had sent emails requiring them to hush up about the donation.
When answering questions from a lawmaker of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) about the cut-price land deal, he said under oath that he thought politician intervention was involved.
He said that he himself was surprised by the subtraction of around 800 million yen from the plot's appraisal price.
He said that he still had in his possession a fax between him and an assistant to Akie in which he asked the prime minister's wife for favors.
But he refrained from answering questions on why the estimated construction costs of the would-be school submitted to different entities differed significantly, citing the possibility of a criminal complaint that might be filed.
After giving sworn testimony before the House of Councillors Budget Committee in the morning, Yasunori Kagoike will move to the House of Representatives in the afternoon.
He will also attend a press conference at the Tokyo-based foreign correspondents' club in the evening.
Kagoike is the first sworn witness summoned to the Diet since April 2012. He can be charged with perjury if he gives false testimony.
There has been an escalating furor surrounding Moritomo Gakuen school for a cut-price land deal with the government.
Moritomo Gakuen school reportedly bought a 8,770-square-meter piece of land last June in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, for 134 million yen, equivalent to only 14 percent of its appraisal price.
The land, according to local reports, had been intended for a new elementary school to be opened in April with the prime minister's wife Akie as its honorary principal.
Abe's wife Akie also gave several speeches at a kindergarten run by the school operator.
The kindergarten has been under fire for imposing on its students hate speech and nationalist education.
Akie has since stepped down as the scandal widened and videos of the school's nationalist agenda began to be beamed across social media platforms and regular broadcasting sites.
Abe has on many occasions denied involvement in the land deal.
The scandal presents the most serious crisis for Abe since he returned to office in 2012 and appears likely to further erode his support rates, according to analysts here. (1 Japanese yen = 0.009 U.S. dollar)
