Ex-Mayor of Ito, Central Japan, Indicted over Academic Fraud

Shizuoka, March 30 (Jiji Press)–Public prosecutors on Monday indicted without arrest Maki Takubo, former mayor of the city of Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, on suspicions including local autonomy law violation over her alleged academic fraud. Following the indictment by the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office, Takubo, 56, is set to stand trial. Between around May 29 and June 4, 2025, Takubo is suspected of forging her diploma from Toyo University and showed the allegedly counterfeit certificate to the head and vice head of the Ito city assembly, according the indictment. To forge the diploma, she allegedly used counterfeit seals with the names of the head of the Japanese private university and the chief of the school’s law faculty. Takubo is seen to have bought the seals on the internet. Takubo also allegedly made a false statement at a meeting of a special investigation panel of the city assembly in August 2025 that she learned only on June 28 the same year that she did not graduate from the university although she had long been aware of the matter. Informed sources said that Takubo has denied her alleged academic record falsification during voluntary questioning by the Shizuoka prefectural police department. She also refused to submit her diploma, citing her right against seizure. In February this year, the police department raided Takubo’s home and referred her to prosecutors with an opinion seeking her indictment. Takubo was elected Ito mayor for the first time in May 2025, after serving as an Ito city assembly member. She had claimed to have graduated from Toyo University, but revealed in July that she had been expelled from the school. At the August special city assembly panel meeting, Takubo denied her alleged academic fraud. In September, she dissolved the assembly after it passed a no-confidence motion against her earlier that month. Following a subsequent election, the newly formed assembly adopted a fresh no-confidence motion against Takubo in October, resulting in her immediate removal from office. Takubo ran in an ensuing mayoral poll in December but failed to be re-elected. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]