No sooner had Diet member Junichiro Koga arrived here Wednesday to clear up allegations that he didn't receive a degree from Pepperdine University, when UCLA -- which he also said he attended -- stated it has no record of his enrollment.
In Democratic Party of Japan leaflets distributed during the campaign for the Nov. 9 House of Representatives election, a profile of Koga, 55, says he studied at the University of California at Los Angeles and earned a bachelor's degree from Pepperdine in nearby Malibu.
But just as he arrived, UCLA said the lawmaker was never a student there.
The House of Representatives member said earlier this week that he attended Pepperdine from 1978 to 1982 and received an undergraduate degree through his lawyer when he completed procedures to obtain permanent residence in the U.S.
Pepperdine officials, however, could only verify that he attended classes and said he did not graduate.
"I am here to see the facts for myself with my own eyes," Koga, 55, told reporters in the morning outside the international arrivals area at Los Angeles International Airport. "Although time is limited, once I have the solid facts, I will report them."
The House of Representatives Committee on Rules and Administration gave Koga permission to skip Diet business until Monday to settle suspicions that he lied about his academic background when campaigning for the Nov. 9 general election.