Tokyo Gov Koike faces criminal complaint over allegedly fake university diploma

Best-selling author Ryo Kuroki was captured by this ongoing allegation of Koike falsifying her academic credentials, so he decided to do his own investigation. His extensive research and interviews cast a lot of doubt on Koike’s claim of graduating from Cairo University in Egypt.

Koike should clarify this matter by providing documentation supporting her claim before continuing her candidacy for another term as governor.

—

“Allegations of fake university degree haunt Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike” — Ryo Kuroki (in English)

Part 1: https://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/80488

Part 2: https://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/80489

Part 3: https://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/80490

Part 4: https://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/80491

Part 5: https://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/80492

Part 6: https://jbpress.ismedia.jp/articles/-/80493

There's a simple solution, show the diploma.

There's a simple solution, show the diploma.

She did.

https://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20200615_1570050.html

There's a simple solution, show the diploma.

From the above series by Ryo Kuroki …

—

At Cairo University and other Egyptian state universities there are three types of documents to prove graduation. A “graduate certificate" (or “temporary graduate certificate") is issued within about a month of graduation, a “diploma" is issued later and “academic transcript" which shows the grades achieved in each subject.

The graduate certificate is a document for practical use with revenue stamps attached. A diploma is a larger size document with more formal appearance. The former is issued to all graduates while the latter is issued upon request and payment of fee. Academic transcripts are required when the student goes on to graduate school in a foreign country etc.

Despite being a politician for 28 years, Koike has shown her degree certificates only twice. The first time was her diploma on the “Weekly Post" magazine dated 9 April 1993. However, the size of the photograph is so small (around 6cm×5cm) that no letter is legible. The second time was her graduate certificate and diploma in a news program of Fuji TV "Toku-Dane!" (“Scoop!") which was broadcast on 30 June 2016. The report is short and the image is not necessarily clear but thanks to the video clip that was available on YouTube we were able to roughly see what they are like. (The video clip was removed from YouTube immediately after the publication of “Fake CV" but many people had saved it before the removal. Perhaps this indicates Koike’s nervousness about those documents.)

Since Koike has not shown her degree certificates to the public in a clear form, we can only examine whether they are genuine or not with the only legible Fuji TV screenshot.

[Screenshot of Koike’s graduate certificate]

For comparison purpose I collected about 20 graduate certificates from Cairo University graduates I met and from internet sites. Those certificates are issued by faculties of Arts, Engineering, Economics and Political Science, Commerce, Medicine, Pharmacy, and Law between 1973 and 2015.

Cairo University's graduate certificates vary in terms of signatories, stamps, and forms depending on the faculty and the year in which they were issued. Usually there are three to five signatories on a single graduate certificate, i.e., mukhattas (specialist), musajjil (registrar), muraaqib (controller), muraajiu (checker), etc., with the signature of mudir aanm as-shouuni taaliimiiya (general director for educational matters) or amiid l-kulliiya (dean of faculty) underneath. Revenue stamps are also affixed and stamps of the university's general administration department (al-idaarat-l-aanma) and faculties are stamped in one to five places including the revenue stamp's tally. Shape of some of the certificates is close to a square but many are vertical and long rectangles.

As far as I can see from the screenshot, Koike's graduate certificate looks invalid. This is because none of the seals on the university's stamp, which is paramount, are legible. It may have been even forged because it is substantially different from the ones of the Faculty of Arts at that time.

Koike's graduate certificate has three stamps but only the one at the bottom left vaguely appears to have an eagle mark, a sign that means that the certificate is issued from an Egyptian governmental body, on it and the other two are completely blurred. The other 20 or so certificates I have collected are all clearly stamped. The eagle mark, the name of the department around it and the Arabic letters for the university's general administration department are all clearly visible.

I showed Koike's graduate certificate to two people. One is a Professors of Faculty of Arts of Cairo University and another person is graduate of Cairo University’s Faculty of Engineering who works in a managerial position in an organization. They told me that Koike’s certificate could not be used as a valid graduate certificate. 

Aside from the stamps, Koike's graduate certificate has irregularities that do not exist in those of other genuine graduates.

The first irregularity is that the text of Koike's graduate certificate is written in the masculine form. That is, the honorific title "sayyid" (Mr.) rather than "sayyida" (Ms.), "mauluud" (masculine) rather than "mauluuda" (feminine) for "born", "hasala" (masculine) rather than "hasalt" (feminine) for "obtained" a degree, "talabh" (his request) rather than "talabhah" (her request), all written in masculine form.

In Arabic, you do not need particularly to indicate the gender on the document, but you can tell from the word form. Not a single graduate certificate I collected has this kind of gender mismatch and the two female ones that I collected are neatly written in feminine form too. I would like to hear from Koike why the text is written in masculine form and why she did not ask the issuer to amend it.

The second irregularity is that the screenshot shows only two signatures out of the four signatories required. Her certificate has signature spaces from the right for "mukhattas (specialist)", "al-muraaqib (controller)" and "al-muraaqib l-aanm (general controller)" and the only signature you can see with certainty is that of "al-muraaqib" in the middle (further down there is the signature of the dean of the faculty). In case of the other 20 or so certificates which I have collected, there is only one certificate which lacks one of the four signatures, but the rest have signatures in all signature spaces.

The third point of irregularity is that Koike's graduate certificate has a revenue stamp affixed upside-down. There is no such example in any other certificate I collected. Due to space constraints, some of the revenue stamps were placed sideways, but Koike's stamp was affixed upside down, regardless of space constraints.

The fourth irregularity is that Koike's photograph is pinned. The photographs of the 20 or so certificates I collected are all glued or stapled. Since these are important documents to use for job hunting, it is natural to stick them securely. Koike's certificate gives an impression that it was made from an irregular route.

Overall, all graduate certificates I saw apart from that of Koike’s are very carefully prepared, including the way the seal is stamped, signed and the way the revenue stamps are affixed. This is natural because it is a very important document which is used for job hunting. However, what Koike claims to be a graduate certificate seems to me to have been sloppily crafted.

It is strange that Koike stubbornly refuses to show the certificate or to submit it to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly. Also, she has never shown her transcript of grades.

You can never run from the past, especially in public office. This will become a huge shadow on Koike if the allegations are true and this mysterious document ain’t real. Either the press will give her a free pass and let (make) the story die or Koike just does what any innocent person would do under these serious allegations , which is to put them to rest once and for all by producing proof of her graduation. It’s fairly straightforward stuff this one, lying about your qualifications is a big deal and anyone, no matter how powerful, should be made to explain themselves.

There's a simple solution, show the diploma.

That was my thought, exactly. Show the credentials and verify the transcripts. Simple as that. That's what happened when I applied for my Master's courses.

As others said, it is a simple thing to check, and the timing of the criminal complaint reeks of political interests. Assuming that her graduation claim is indeed dubious, then the two top candidates for Tokyo mayor are a CV cheater and a double nationality liar. Great.

By the way, Cairo University certifies her graduation. From wikipedia:

In June 2020, Cairo University released a statement "Cairo University certifies that Yuriko Koike...graduated from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Arts, Cairo University in October 1976," denying the allegations. Source: "Cairo University Certifies Tokyo Gov. Koike's graduation". ARAB NEWS. 10 June 2020. Retrieved 15 April2024.

Yup...sure smells like politics.

"Cairo University in Egypt released a statement stating, "We certify that Koike Yuriko graduated from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Letters, Cairo University in October 1976. The diploma was issued through official procedures at Cairo University." The Egyptian Embassy in Tokyo published the statement on Facebook."

https://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20200615_1570050.html?DETAIL

Photo of diploma on site. Can't swear to it since I don't read Arabic. But it certainly is made public.

Seems to me that the arguments of whether Ms Koike's Diploma/Certification is authentic or not become irrelevant if Cairo University has confirmed it, and the Egyptian Embassy has produced it.

If it is proven to be falsified, does she have to return all her salaries and benefits she has accrued over her lifetime to the employer & taxpayer since it would be under false pretenses? If not, then this would incentivize others to falsify records like degrees to save money, time, and effort. They would just need to get at least enough money saved to live off of and draw investments from.

If it smells like politics, tastes likes politics, and is corrupt, it is definitely politics.........I woud have thought, naively may be, that just getting in touch with the university woud be enough to solve this. They Must have records of all the students that went there.........unless they self destruct after 10 yrs.

The Japanese university I work for almost hired a foreign teacher who lied about his academic records. They really need to weed these academic fraudsters out.

Seems to me that the arguments of whether Ms Koike's Diploma/Certification is authentic or not become irrelevant if Cairo University has confirmed it, and the Egyptian Embassy has produced it.

yeah, you’ve nailed it!

It’s about time that people who falsely accuse and make false allegations against others be prosecuted and locked up! Enough is enough!!!

OssanAmericaToday  11:27 am JST

Yup...sure smells like politics.

"Cairo University in Egypt released a statement stating, "We certify that Koike Yuriko graduated from the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Letters, Cairo University in October 1976. The diploma was issued through official procedures at Cairo University." The Egyptian Embassy in Tokyo published the statement on Facebook."

https://www.news-postseven.com/archives/20200615_1570050.html?DETAIL

Photo of diploma on site. Can't swear to it since I don't read Arabic. But it certainly is made public.

Seems to me that the arguments of whether Ms Koike's Diploma/Certification is authentic or not become irrelevant if Cairo University has confirmed it, and the Egyptian Embassy has produced it.

Certainly, if the document is legit then it is legit. What's all the brewhaha about then? Shouldn't be too hard to verify at all. Is this a sad version of the birth certificate document claims for Obama back in the day? Dirty politics? Douyaro?

Who cares. Another disgruntled old man. Just call the university to verify independently.

including this criminal complaint, Japan's most TV news shows still avoid to report inconvenient issues to present governor Koike.

Many people don't yet know about problematic Koike politics such as tax wasting to benefit ad corporation, no achieved public promises, deforestation with ignoring even international criticism or arrogant un-democratic behavior at metropolitan assembly.

Political strategy.

The 75 year old Jiji must have some sort of grudge on Koike

Once worked with a guy who said he had a teaching certificate from Harvard. Turns out it was a 2 week course from Harvard on English teaching and it said certificate. While he did have a certificate from Harvard it was far from a teaching certificate. I suspect something like this is happening here. Exaggerating credentials is a common past time here.

Another case of “politics as usual”!

WGAS? This is only news in a "gakureki shakai" like Japan. I am sure Koike is innocent, but this story reminds me of some of the eikaiwa schools I worked in when I first landed on these shores back in the early 80s. You only needed to photocopy a university diploma, add your name, and copy it again. I remember a Polish guy who got a job that way.

I'm glad this is not going away. It was the same as Taiwan's Tsai Ing-wen who couldn't even remember the title of her "PhD thesis". Strange how only two people in her year were missing from LSE's database - one of them failed her defence. The other was Tsai.

I'm willing to bet both her and Koike paid the universities to get them off the hook.

As I said before, people were saying her level of Arabic was TERRIBLE for a graduate. Also, mixing fus'ha with colloquial Egytian Arabic when speaking.

It's all dependent on what Cairo University says. Everything else is just speculation since the university is the only authority that can ultimately determine who is, or is not, a graduate.

So in Japan it is illegal for politicians to intentionally lie? Sounds good to me. A certain convicted felon would be ineligible to run for office, if that were the law in the USA.