Updated

An endorsement by the wife of Japan's prime minister of a new elementary school run by a man with ultra-nationalistic views has been removed from the school's website amid an escalating controversy over the low price the school paid for government land.

Japanese media have reported that the state property in Osaka was sold in 2016 for 134 million yen ($1.2 million), one-seventh of its appraised price. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has denied he or his wife Akie had any influence over the land deal.

The same school operator runs a kindergarten with a curriculum said to resemble that of pre-World War II Japan. It plans a similar approach for the elementary school, which is set to open in April, pending final approval by Osaka prefecture.