Osaka Prefecture relaxed school-approval system rules after Moritomo Gakuen request

OSAKA – Osaka Gov. Ichiro Matsui said Tuesday the prefecture relaxed regulations regarding the approval system for opening schools after nationalist private kindergarten operator Moritomo Gakuen requested it, but denied the company influenced the local government's decision. "Compared to other Kansai area prefectures, the hurdles (to run private schools) in Osaka were quite high," Matsui said, adding the reason for the decision was to attract more schools. In April 2012, a few months after Matsui became Osaka's governor, the prefecture relaxed regulations. Nearly six months earlier in September 2011, Moritomo Gakuen head Yasunori Kagoike, who wanted to build an elementary school despite financial difficulties that might have disqualified it from getting prefectural approval, asked the Osaka to ease the rules. Moritomo Gakuen has been under fire recently following revelations of a questionable land deal and for distributing anti-Chinese and anti-Korean literature at its kindergarten.