New paper emerges over Kake scandal, suggests link with Abe
Jiji -- Apr 11
A new document emerged Tuesday over a cronyism scandal involving Kake Educational Institution, saying its plan to open a university veterinary school in Imabari, Ehime Prefecture, was a matter related to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

In its Tuesday morning edition, the Asahi Shimbun daily reported that the Ehime prefectural government produced a document on an April 2, 2015, meeting between Tadao Yanase, then executive secretary to Abe, and officials of the prefectural and Imabari city governments at the prime minister's office in Tokyo.

In the document, dated April 13, 2015, Yanase, currently vice minister for international affairs at the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, is quoted as saying that the plan to open the school in a national strategic special zone in the western Japan city was a "prime minister-related matter."

Yanase issued a statement on Tuesday denying that he made such a remark. "I've never met with officials of Ehime Prefecture or Imabari as far as I can remember," he also said, as he did during a parliamentary meeting in July last year.

But later in the day, Ehime Governor Tokihiro Nakamura admitted at a press conference in Matsuyama, the capital of Ehime, that the reported document is a note made by a prefectural official who attended the meeting in question.

加計学園の問題で10日午後に愛媛県知事が記者会見しました。その後、朝日新聞デジタルが速報でメモがあった備忘録という部分の全文が朝日新聞デジタルが報じています。 一つは藤原地方創生推進室次長の主な発言、「かなりチャンスがあると思って頂いて良い」ということが書いてあります。
News sources: Jiji, ANNnewsCH