Beleaguered Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has repeated denials he misused his influence to help a friend in a growing favouritism scandal.
Abe was questioned by opposition MPs outside parliament's ordinary session on Monday, a rare occurrence underscoring the ruling Liberal Democrat party's eagerness to regain public trust.
He is expected to reshuffle his cabinet after seeing public approval sink in the wake of various scandals and his party's railroading of unpopular legislation.
It's alleged Abe intervened to help a friend, Kotaro Kake, gain approval to open a veterinary school in western Japan.
During Monday's question session in the lower house, Abe said he only sought reforms for the sector and did not directly get involved in the decision on Kake's application.
"I only instructed to speed up efforts for the deregulation reforms. I have never issued instructions on specific cases," he said.
The school scandal erupted after a whistleblower and former top education ministry bureaucrat, Kihei Maekawa, came forward to say Abe's office had had significant influence over the school's approval.
Scores of ministry documents showed the alleged instruction to approve Kake's application came from the "top levels" of the Prime Minister's Office, Maekawa said.
Given the lack of significant centre-left alternatives or strong rivals within his party, Abe's tenure as prime minister is not under immediate threat.
In his second stint as prime minister, he is getting the message he might have to tread softly in pushing for some of his top priorities, such as revising Japan's war-renouncing constitution.
The Liberal Democrats suffered a symbolically damaging loss in Tokyo city assembly elections in early July.
On Sunday, their candidate lost a closely watched mayoral election in Sendai, in northern Japan.
Abe acknowledges Kake, director of a major education organisation, was a friend before he became an MP in 1993 but has not tried to obtain preferential treatment.
