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Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (Photo by Yoshio Tsunoda/AFLO)<by Ryo Kuroki>
Ever since the incumbent Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike became a Member of Parliament in 1992, rumors have been circulating that Koike embellished her academic credentials.
Koike claims to have graduated from Cairo University but if an Arabic speaker listens to her Arabic, her published academic credentials as a Cairo University graduate seems more than dubious.
There are strong evidence about her fake academic credentials such as testimony by the flatmate supported by documentary evidence, Koike's self-contradictory statement in her book to have graduated in four years despite failing her first year, her rudimentary Arabic, her lie about the graduation thesis and her stubbornness in refusing to submit her graduation documents to the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly.
Feeling a sense of duty as someone who learnt Arabic and graduated from an Egyptian university (MA, Middle East Studies from the American University in Cairo), I decided to investigate the allegations. After two years of investigation, I could not find any evidence, nor even the slightest hint that Koike graduated from Cairo University.
In this six-part article, I present the results of my investigation in detail.Here is the third part of it;
Even the President of Cairo University admits that
It never came to light before the days of SNS, when the media could not write anything against the government, but it is widely believed that professors and university staff have been involved in issuing "fake degree certificate" at Egyptian state universities including Cairo University for many years. In English it is called "complementary certificate" which literally means "certificate given as a gift" but in reality it is a "fake degree certificate". I believe Koike may have benefitted from one of these.
This existence of the “complementary certificate" has been confirmed by a number of Egyptians whom I met. Not a single Egyptian denied about it. The President of Cairo University himself admitted in a TV interview in 2015 that there is still a problem with "fake degree certificates".
