Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Monday he has no problem with his former aide's 2015 meeting with officials from Kake Gakuen, the school chain run by his friend, and repeated that he never intervened in the government process for approving the rare veterinary project launched by his longtime confidant.
It was Abe's first Diet response to the unsworn testimony given last week by Tadao Yanase, his former assistant.
Yanase, currently a senior official at the trade ministry, belatedly admitted to meeting officials from Kake Gakuen three times in 2015 but denied doing so at Abe's urging, dissociating the prime minister from the ongoing favoritism allegations.