Shizuoka Police Raid Ousted Ito Mayor’s Home

Ito, Shizuoka Pref., Feb. 14 (Jiji Press)–Shizuoka prefectural police have raided the home of former Ito Mayor Maki Takubo, who faces allegations of falsifying her academic background, investigation sources said Saturday. At the former mayor’s residence, located in an area of the city lined with villas, investigators were seen erecting a curtain with blue tarps in the garden, likely to shield the scene from public view. About 10 investigators loaded cardboard boxes believed to contain seized materials into a car and left the scene around 2:40 p.m. According to the sources, Takubo denied all four charges against her, including a violation of the public offices election law, when she was questioned by the prefectural police on a voluntary basis on Jan. 29. Later, she also refused to voluntarily submit a diploma citing her right to refuse seizure. Takubo was elected mayor for the first time in May last year after serving as a city assembly member. Despite initially claiming to have graduated from Toyo University, she announced in July of the same year that she had actually been expelled from the university. At a meeting of the city assembly’s special investigation committee, she said, “I learned for the first time on June 28 that I had been expelled,” claiming that she did not falsify her educational background. The city assembly chairman and others filed a criminal complaint. In September last year, she dissolved the city assembly in response to a no-confidence motion against her. Following the subsequent municipal assembly election, the assembly passed a second no-confidence motion against her, resulting in her removal from office. Three months later, she ran again for mayor but lost. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]