日本防卫大臣深陷森友学园丑闻

Shinzo Abe has been forced to back his defence minister after documents emerged linking her to a spiralling scandal over the cut-price sale of public land to a religious school.

安倍晋三(Shinzo Abe)被迫表态支持防卫大臣，此前最新曝光的文件把她扯进一场把公共土地折价卖给一所宗教学校的愈演愈烈的丑闻。

Speaking in parliament, the prime minister rejected calls for Tomomi Inada to resign but said she needed to explain her past disavowal of links to the Moritomo Gakuen school operator.

在国会发言时，日本首相拒绝了要求稻田朋美(Tomomi Inada，见上图左二)辞职的呼吁，但表示，她需要解释她过去宣称不存在的她与森友学园(Moritomo Gakuen)经营者之间的联系。

“I’d like Ms Inada to fulfil her responsibility to explain and continue to discharge her duties,” said Mr Abe. Ms Inada, previously seen as a rising star and protégée of Mr Abe, is a darling of Japan’s conservative right.

“我希望稻田履行她的解释责任，并继续履行职责，”安倍表示。以往被视为冉冉上升的政治明星和安倍门徒的稻田朋美，是日本右翼保守阵营的宠儿。

The scandal is dragging down Mr Abe’s opinion poll ratings, making it harder for him to call an early general election and threatening his government’s ability to push economic reforms.

这起丑闻已拖累安倍在民意调查中的表现，使他更难宣布提前举行大选，还危及他的政府推进经济改革的能力。

According to broadcaster NHK’s monthly tracking poll, support for the Abe government dropped by seven points from 58 per cent to 51 per cent in March as the scandal gained momentum. Opposition parties raise it constantly in parliament.

随着这起丑闻不断发酵，安倍政府在日本放送协会(NHK)每月跟踪调查中获得的支持率下降了7个百分点，从2月的58%降至3月的51%。

Mr Abe insists he had nothing to do with the land sale even though his wife, Akie Abe, was to become honorary principal of the new primary school. But the revelations that Ms Inada once acted as a lawyer for Moritomo Gakuen — which has been criticised for its highly nationalistic curriculum — tie it even more closely to the prime minister’s circle.

安倍坚称，他与出售土地的交易毫无关系，尽管他的妻子安倍昭恵(Akie Abe)将成为这所新小学的荣誉校长。但是，有关稻田朋美曾经担任森友学园律师的最新爆料，使这家学校经营者被更加紧密地与首相的圈子牵扯到一起。森友学园因其高度民族主义的教学大纲而受到批评。

The defence minister corrected her past statements in parliament, saying she had “absolutely no recollection” of working for the school. Court documents from 2004 show her making filings on its behalf.

防卫大臣在国会纠正了她以往的声明，称其对于为该学校工作“绝对没有记忆”。2004年的法院文件显示，她曾代表其提交文件。

Ms Inada's outspoken views on Japan’s history — particularly during the second world war — align with the school operator’s religious, conservative curriculum. In the past she has questioned the legitimacy of the Tokyo tribunal that convicted Japanese leaders of war crimes, elements of the infamous Nanking massacre and the degree of coercion in supplying brothels with prostitutes.

稻田朋美在日本历史——特别是在第二次世界大战期间——议题上直言不讳的看法，与这家学校经营者宗教色彩浓厚的保守派教学大纲吻合。她曾质疑判定日本领导人犯有战争罪的东京法庭的合法性、臭名昭著的南京大屠杀的某些元素以及慰安妇制度中的强制程度。

Her appointment as defence minister last summer was seen as a possible stepping stone to the premiership. But she has struggled in office and even if she is not forced to resign, the school scandal is likely to damage her career.

她在去年夏天被任命为防卫大臣一事，曾被视为可能是通往首相职位的一块踏板。但她在任职期间不太顺利，即使她没有被迫辞职，这起学校丑闻也很可能损害她的政治生涯。

According to local reports, Moritomo Gakuen bought the 8,770 square metre plot in Osaka prefecture last June for ￥134m ($1.18m). The land’s appraisal value was ￥956m and a neighbouring plot of a similar size went for ￥1.4bn in 2010, suggesting it was sold for just 10 per cent of what it was worth.

据日本媒体报道，森友学园去年6月买下大阪县一个8770平方米的地块，价格为1.34亿日元（合118万美元）。这块地皮的评估价值高达9.56亿日元，而面积相仿的一个相邻地块在2010年以14亿日元易手，似乎表明其售价只有实际价值的10%。

Moritomo Gakuen has abandoned its plans to open the school and its controversial head says he will resign. The government will repurchase the site and the school may have to demolish its almost finished building. Nevertheless, the opposition Democratic and Communist parties are demanding investigations into the land sale decision.

森友学园已经放弃了开办这所学校的计划，其有争议的掌门人表示他将辞职。政府将买回这个地块，而学校可能不得不拆除其几乎完工的楼房。然而，反对党民主党和共产党要求调查当初出售土地的决定。

At its private kindergarten, the school tries to instil patriotism in three- to five-year-old pupils by making them memorise the 1890 Imperial Rescript, which tells them to “offer yourselves courageously to the state”. The rescript was abolished by the US education authorities following the second world war.

森友学园旗下的私立幼儿园向3至5岁的孩子们灌输爱国主义，要求他们背诵1890年颁布的《教育敕语》(Imperial Rescript on Education)，其中要求他们为国家“克忠克孝，亿兆一心”。二战结束后，在美国占领当局主导之下，这份文件被废止。

According to the Kyodo news agency, Moritomo Gakuen was also questioned by prefectural authorities in January on suspicion of spreading hate speech, after it distributed a statement to parents containing alleged slurs against Chinese people and Korean residents of Japan.

据共同社(Kyodo)报道，今年1月，森友学园还曾因涉嫌传播仇恨言论而被一些县政府机构约谈，起因是该校向家长们散发一份声明，其内容有诽谤旅居日本的华人和韩国人之嫌。