Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied Friday that he and his wife ever made a donation to the beleaguered principal of an Osaka-based school operator to help him build a nationalist elementary school at the center of a cut-rate land deal that has captured the nation's interest.

Abe's latest assertion amounts to a stark denial of the claim leveled Thursday by Yasunori Kagoike, principal of scandal-hit school operator Moritomo Gakuen, that he had received a donation worth ¥1 million under Abe's name.

"I have never met him in person. I have no personal relationship with him. That I would proffer that large of a donation to a person like that is inconceivable," Abe said in response to questions from Democratic Party lawmaker Nobuyuki Fukushima during a meeting of the Lower House committee on security.