At the time of writing, the Diet is again embroiled in the scandal surrounding the scuttled plan to open an ultra-nationalist elementary school in Osaka. Opposition leaders suspect that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife gave a nod and a wink to the authorities involved so that school operator Moritomo Gakuen would get a bargain-basement deal on land it bought from the government for the proposed school. Abe has denied any involvement.
Last July, Yasunori Kagoike, director of the school, and his wife were arrested for allegedly swindling the central government out of construction costs through fraudulent documentation. They have been detained ever since, despite Japan's recognition of the legal principle of presumed innocence.
Just when we thought the scandal had petered out, a scoop in the Asahi Shimbun breathed new life into the sleazy affair. The newspaper found that documents related to the final decision on the sale of public land to Moritomo Gakuen had been falsified. Abe and his trusty finance minister, Taro Aso, doubled down on their denials of any knowledge of the affair, although Aso did finally admit that the falsification had taken place at his ministry.