One thing that connects Prime Minister Abe and Kagoike is that they are, or were, members of the aforementioned religious cult Nippon Kaigi.
According to Mainichi Shimbun Kagoike was the Osaka branch leader of Nippon Kaigi until his departure from the group in January 2011, based on a statement on the group in March 2017.
It is unclear if Kagoike really has cut ties with the group since he was still wearing his Nippon Kaigi badge at a press conference on March 10 this year.
Shinzo Abe is also a member, as are more than a dozen ministers in his cabinet.
The group wants to rebuild the military, claims that Japan’s goal in World War II was to “liberate” Asia from western colonialism, and that Japan must free itself from the democratic constitution created after World War II and notions of “human rights.”
The elementary school was going to be Japan’s first and only Shinto elementary school, which would “respect Japanese propriety and nurture patriotism and national pride.”
According to the weekly magazine Bunshun, Akie Abe had visited the Tsukamoto Kindergarten, run by Moritomo Gakuen, three times in the past and had been in her own words “deeply inspired” by the educational principles of the institution which included the recitation of the “Imperial Rescript on Education” issued in 1890.
Akie Abie also admired the students’ participation in Self-Defense Force related events and their practice of worshipping at Ise Shrine.
Here, at last, would be a place where children could learn “alternative history” and build a bright shining future for Imperial Japan.
Of course, the school has had some issues―such as passing out flyers with ethnic slurs towards Koreans and Chinese and ordering children to cheer Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
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It seems odd that Akie Abe would support such a nationalistic school, when she is remarkably liberal in other areas like LGBT rights and a need for Japan to integrate marijuana into society.
Bunshun writes that her newfound Shinto spiritualism might explain the attraction of the school for her.
Supposedly, Ms. Abe is actively deepening her relations with spiritual advisors and Shinto communities while she visits Shinto shrines across the country speaking out and making some strange proclamations like “(my husband) was destined to be prime minister.” She says, “Fate is God given.” And she also says, yes, “Marijuana is a necessity to experience the traditional Japanese way of Shinto. Bringing Japan back means bringing back its pot culture.”
Okay. If her overall goal is to “bring back the good old Japan,” her activities do align up to a slightly confusing point with her husband’s views.
So the kindergarten must have seemed like another great way to advocate for her ideal Japan, until the word got out about the shady way the land had been purchased.
And since then other problems have emerged.
On March 23, Kagoike said in sworn testimony before the National Diet that he had received a one million yen donation directly in cash from Ms. Abe with the words “from Shinzo Abe” on the envelope in September of 2015.
This happened during Akie’s visit to the kindergarten where she gave a speech. She ordered her aide to leave the room before doing it, he claims.
Prime Minister Abe has vehemently denied allegations about such donations and furthermore any relation suggested between himself or his wife and the discounted real estate the school received. He went as far as to claim that he would “step down as prime minister and as a Diet member if such facts existed”.
The whole scandal seems to have shaken him badly and the ostensible glow from his post, “I met Trump and he liked me,” has faded away completely.
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