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SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

The ongoing scandal involving the private educational corporation Kake Gakuen hinges on whether or not Prime Minister Shinzo Abe indirectly pushed the Cabinet to approve a new veterinary department for Okayama University of Science, a school run by Kake, whose chairman, Kotaro Kake, is a close friend of Abe's. Consequently, various media are investigating the actual need for another veterinary school. No Japanese institute of higher learning has opened one in 52 years, reportedly because, as with convenience stores and dentists, Japan already has too many animal doctors.