Suspected Fake Diploma Data Seized from Ex-Ito Mayor’s Computer

Shizuoka, Aug. 25 (Jiji Press)–Police have seized data believed to be a fake university diploma from a computer belonging to Maki Takubo, former mayor of Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture, central Japan, people familiar with the matter said on Tuesday. The Shizuoka prefectural police confiscated the data during a search of her house in Ito in February, according to the people. Takubo, 56, has continued to deny forging the document. The physical version of it, which she says is a “graduation certificate,” is kept in a safe of a law firm in Tokyo and has not been confiscated. Takubo has cited her right against seizure. In March, Takubo was indicted without arrest for charges of forging the document and making a false statement in a city assembly meeting. Takubo has been accused of forging a certificate of graduation from Toyo University in Tokyo and showing it to the chair and vice chair of the city assembly in May-June 2025. She has also been charged with falsely telling an assembly investigative panel that she only learned that she had failed to graduate from the university on June 28 of that year, although she knew she had not graduated. The former mayor had claimed to have graduated from the university, but revealed in July that year that she had been expelled from it. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]