Suspicions over a shady deal involving the sale of government-owned land to an Osaka school operator were not cleared up with the Diet testimony this week by its president. Instead they deepened. The government continued to deny what Moritomo Gakuen chief Yasunori Kagoike said in his sworn testimony, including an allegation that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's wife Akie donated ¥1 million to the operator for the launch of its new elementary school, as well as his "recognition" that political intervention was behind the sale of land to the school project at a steep discount. Efforts must be kept up to clarify what indeed was behind the murky deal.

Abe, who earlier said he would resign as prime minister and lawmaker if he, his wife or his office were found to have been involved in the deal, says it "has been made clear that there was no concrete intervention by politicians" in the deal with Moritomo Gakuen. His administration rejects the demand from the opposition camp that his wife, along with other parties including officials responsible for the land deal, be summoned to the Diet to testify. Following Kagoike's testimony on Thursday, Akie Abe broke her silence by posting a Facebook message denying she made the ¥1 million donation in the name of the prime minister. But to determine who's lying, it would be reasonable for all parties to testify under oath.

Abe's ruling coalition was initially reluctant toward opposition demands for grilling Kagoike in the Diet over the sale of the 8,770 sq.-meter tract of government-owned land in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture for ¥134 million, a fraction of its appraisal value of ¥956 million, to build the new school there. The Liberal Democratic Party then called for summoning Kagoike to give sworn testimony — in which he could be charged with perjury if he made false statements — after he claimed that Akie Abe had donated ¥1 million on behalf of her husband to the school project, on the grounds that his remark constituted an "insult" to the prime minister. Lawmakers of the LDP-Komeito alliance who grilled Kagoike during Thursday's testimony in both Diet chambers were apparently trying to cast doubts on the credibility of his words.