Yasunori Kagoike, the former head of an Osaka-based educational institution at the center of a murky real estate deal — who claims Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife were involved in the deal — used to idolize Abe.
"I am where I am now because I've met him," Kagoike said in a seven-hour-long interview with media outlets in May.
But the relationship abruptly ended on March 15, the day Kagoike — who was arrested Monday after being accused of fraudulently receiving public subsidies for his school businesses — talked with first lady Akie Abe on the phone one last time, he claims.