Photo/Illutration Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga answers questions from reporters on Oct. 9 about the rejection of six scholars recommended to the Science Council of Japan. (Tsubasa Setoguchi)

Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga knew that some scholars would be denied membership to the Science Council of Japan before he approved a list of recommendations that omitted their names, a government official said Oct. 12.

Kazuhiro Sugita, deputy chief Cabinet secretary, had told Suga that the Science Council’s original list of 105 recommended new members included “candidates whom (the government) cannot appoint,” according to the official.

Suga later authorized the appointment of 99 academics from the Science Council’s original list on Sept. 28.

Right before that approval, Suga was informed again that some candidates recommended by the council had been blacklisted, the official said.

“The prime minister may not have been aware of the individual names (removed from the list), but he knew that some would not be appointed,” the senior official at the prime minister’s office said.

As prime minister, Suga is authorized to approve members recommended by the Science Council, a task that had long been considered a formality.

But the decision to reject six such scholars touched off a public outcry and raised questions about the legitimacy of his act.

Given that the six scholars had criticized the government’s security and other policies, opposition parties and legal experts argued that Suga committed government interference in the council’s independence and threatened academic freedom.

The law governing the Science Council stipulates that the prime minister appoints new members to the council “based on its recommendation.”

Suga is the first prime minister to officially deny membership to academics recommended by the council. He has since provided vague or contradictory comments about the decision.

In an Oct. 5 interview with reporters, Suga suggested that he was involved in rejecting some of the candidates for the Science Council.

“I considered whether I should just follow the precedent in which (the prime minister) appoints all the academics” on the council’s list, he said.

Four days later, however, he said during an interview with The Asahi Shimbun and other news outlets that the list he saw right before his authorization on Sept. 28 showed the names of only 99 candidates. He denied having seen the council’s original list of the 105 academics.

The prime minister would not say who was responsible for screening and scratching the names of the six scholars. Suga has also said that their past criticism of government policies had nothing to do with their rejections.

But Suga and other government officials have not provided a clear explanation for why those six scholars were denied membership.

On Oct. 12, Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato conceded that the Science Council’s original list of 105 recommended members was submitted to Suga.

“It was attached to the document to authorize the appointments as a reference material,” he said at a news conference.

But he defended Suga’s comment that he did not see the original list.

“I am afraid that the prime minister did not take a close look at the list (compiled by the Science Council),” Kato said.

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