Abe's Wife Accused of Giving Cash-Filled Envelope in Scandal
- Japan spokesman denies Abe donated to nationalist group
- Polls show scandal over school has dented Abe’s popularity
Akie Abe.
Photographer: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP via Getty ImagesThis article is for subscribers only.
The head of a Japanese educational foundation at the center of a real estate scandal told parliament he received a donation from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe via his wife, prompting a fresh denial from the top government spokesman.
Speaking under oath in the Diet for the first time on Thursday, school principal Yasunori Kagoike said that Akie Abe personally handed him an envelope containing 1 million yen ($9,000) in cash during her September 2015 visit to a kindergarten operated by the nationalist group. “She told me it was from Shinzo Abe,” Kagoike said.