Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Monday sought to deny allegations that he is linked to an Osaka-based ultranationalist kindergarten as the public outcry over the operator and its alleged efforts to indoctrinate children with xenophobia and pre-war militarism grows.

At the center of the controversy is Tsukamoto Kindergarten, a private school that recently came under fire for distributing letters to parents that accused Korean residents and Chinese of "possessing wicked thoughts."

It has also emerged that the principal, Yasunori Kagoike, had briefly used Abe's name in the past to raise funds to build Mizuho no Kuni, an elementary school slated to open April this year.