Suspicious Payment Is Key to Tokyo Women’s Medical University Case; Investigators Believe Former Chancellor Iwamoto Diverted 37 Million Yen to Herself

By Hiroto Nishihara and Gakuto Kobayashi / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

7:00 JST, January 15, 2025

In the case of the former chancellor of Tokyo Women’s Medical University, who was arrested on suspicion of embezzling university funds, the key to unraveling the truth lies in clarifying the purpose of the suspicious transaction and how she spent the money that is believed to have been funneled back to her.

The Metropolitan Police Department arrested Kinuko Iwamoto, 78, from Edogawa Ward, Tokyo, on suspicion of breach of trust Monday for allegedly having the university pay about ¥117 million to an architect for fictitious consulting work on new campus buildings in Shinjuku Ward.

Poor governance

Chancellor Osamu Shimizu, 71, bowed repeatedly at a press conference on Monday, the day of her arrest, and said: “We were unable to contain her autocratic decision-making. This case is largely the result of a failure of university governance.”

In October last year, the university overhauled its leadership team in response to a series of scandals, including allegations of improper payments to a former employee. In December, the university formulated a plan to improve university governance, with Shimizu stressing at the press conference that “we will strengthen compliance and rebuild our executive management system to make it highly effective.”

In February 2014, a boy died after being given a large dose of the sedative propofol following surgery at the university hospital.

In June 2015, the university was stripped of its special status which entitled it to preferential treatment concerning medical treatment fees.

Iwamoto, who was tasked with restructuring the university, was appointed vice chancellor in December 2014; she also served as the director in charge of its overall management. She proceeded with implementing thorough cost-cutting measures.

‘Extremely high’ costs

However, Iwamoto also pushed ahead with improving the facilities. In April 2015, she became the chairperson of the advisory committee for future facility plans, and she advanced the construction projects that would come to be at the center of this case, including the creation of two new campus buildings.

Iwamoto wanted an architect with experience in hospital construction, and after an interview, a 68-year-old man with first-class architectural qualifications was hired.

The architect was initially paid between ¥40,000 and ¥ 50,000 per day, to which several million yen per month was later added as an “architectural consultant fee.”

The total amount paid to the architect came to about ¥300 million, including the aforementioned suspicious ¥117 million and the cost of building a hospital ward for a facility that was moving to a new location.

The third-party committee investigating misconduct at the university considered those costs to be “extremely high” and began taking statements from people involved in April last year.

Although the committee was unable to confirm for a fact that the money was diverted to Iwamoto, it pointed out in its report that the approval by the board of directors was a “mere formality” and “showed that [university] governance had become ineffective.”

Hideaki Yamagami, 64, a former deputy prosecutor general in the Supreme Public Prosecutors Office and the chairman of the third-party committee, said, “We were unable to analyze the bank account, so there were limits to our investigation. We hope that the investigative authorities will be able to clarify the facts.”