Osaka, Japan - March 6, 2017
++ MUTE ++
1. Various of article on Moritomo Gakuen scandal

Tokyo, Japan - March 27, 2017
2. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) young man, Tokyo resident (no name given):
"The deal was not for the sake of the nation nor for the people. Although they said it complied with the political procedures, to us common people we feel that our views were ignored."

Osaka, Japan - March 6, 2017
3. Plane flying over property purchased by Moritomo Gakuen
4. Excavator
5. Construction permission notice

Tokyo, Japan - March 27, 2017
6. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) young woman, Tokyo resident (no name given):
"I wish the matter could be clarified plain and to the point. Abe owes an earnest explanation to the people."
7. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) elder man, Tokyo resident (no name given):
"If those in power fail to perform their duties, I think the people will be annoyed."

Osaka, Japan - March 6, 2017
8. Various of exterior of kindergarten owned by Moritomo Gakuen

Tokyo, Japan - March 27, 2017
9. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) elder woman, Tokyo resident (no name given):
"What about Akie Abe's 1 million yen? You can never know it without a testimony. I hope she can also explain the illegal purchase of land at a price 800 million yen cheaper than regular costs. And if there are relevant documents from the Finance Ministry, she should present them."
10. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) young man, Tokyo resident (no name given):
"Akie Abe is a private citizen from a legal perspective. But to us the people she is like a civil servant in every way. Therefore she'd better come forward to make an explanation for the sake of the public understanding. If she insists that she is a private citizen, I think it is only for the sake of her self-defense."

Osaka, Japan - March 6, 2017
11. Various of kindergarten owned by Moritomo Gakuen

Support rate for Abe's cabinet slipped further over a shady land deal scandal in Japan, with the majority of the respondents unsatisfied with what the government has done to clear up the issue, according to a Kyodo News poll released on Sunday.

According to the news agency's telephone survey over the weekend, support rate for the prime minister's cabinet dropped to 52.4 percent, down 3.3 percentage points from the last survey conducted on March 11-12, and down 9.3 percentage points against another survey a month ago.

The Kyodo News reported that 82.5 percent of the respondents said the government has not done enough to clear away suspicions surrounding the scandal, while only 10.7 percent said the government has made enough explanations.

"The deal was not for the sake of the nation nor for the people. Although they said it complied with the political procedures, to us common people we feel that our views were ignored," said a young man from Tokyo.

In the Kyodo News' latest survey, 62.6 percent said they were not convinced with Abe's denial of any involvement by himself or his wife Akie in the cut-price land deal, against 28.7 percent who claimed they were convinced with the denial.

"I wish the matter could be clarified plain and to the point. Abe owes an earnest explanation to the people," said a young woman.

"If those in power fail to perform their duties, I think the people will be annoyed," said an elder man.

Japan's opposition parties have urged the Diet to summon Akie Abe and some other key figures to give sworn testimony, but the prime minister has dismissed the request.

The poll shows that 52 percent insisted Akie Abe should testify under oath in the parliament, especially after Yasunori Kagoike, head of the school operator, said Akie gave him an envelope containing 1 million yen (about 8,900 U.S. dollars).

"What about Akie Abe's 1 million yen? You can never know it without a testimony. I hope she can also explain the illegal purchase of land at a price 800 million yen cheaper than regular costs. And if there are relevant documents from the Finance Ministry, she should present them," said an elder woman.

"Akie Abe is a private citizen from a legal perspective. But to us the people she is like a civil servant in every way. Therefore she'd better come forward to make an explanation for the sake of the public understanding. If she insists that she is a private citizen, I think it is only for the sake of her self-defense," said a young man.

There has been an escalating furor over Moritomo Gakuen for a cut-price land deal for the operator to purchase a plot of land from the government at a massively discounted price with the land to be used to build a new elementary school.

Abe's wife, Akie, was supposed to serve as honorary principal of the would-be school, but has since stepped down as the scandal widened and video of the school's nationalist agenda began to be beamed across social media platforms and regular broadcasting sites.

Yasunori Kagoike, head of the school operator, gave sworn testimony in both chambers of the parliament on Thursday stating that he thinks the land deal involved "politicians' intervention."

He presented to the parliament a fax between him and Akie Abe's aide, Saeko Tani, saying the fax was evidence of the fact that Tani had made inquiries to the Finance Ministry about the land on his behalf.

He also said Akie Abe gave him an envelope containing 1 million yen on behalf of her husband before giving a speech at a kindergarten run by the school operator on Sept. 5, 2015.

Abe on Friday denied that he or his wife Akie were involved in the murky land deal and said the testimony by Kagoike was regrettable and against the truth.

The Kyodo News' Sunday poll indicated that while the support rate for the prime minister's cabinet dropped 3.3 points to 52.4 percent, the disapproval rate increased to 32.5 percent.