Scandal-hit Mayor of Ito, Shizuoka Pref., finally ousted
The city assembly of Ito, Shizuoka Prefecture, on Friday passed a second no-confidence motion against scandal-hit Mayor Maki Takubo, resulting in her removal from office on the same day.
All 20 assembly members attended the day's meeting, and 19 members voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. The central Japan city will now hold a mayoral election within 50 days, likely on Dec. 14.
"I take the assembly's decision solemnly," Takubo told reporters. She declined to clarify whether she will run in the mayoral election, saying, "I'll decide through consultations with my supporters."
In the scandal, Takubo had claimed to have graduated from Toyo University but admitted in July that she had actually been expelled.
Testifying before a special investigation committee of the assembly, Takubo said that she learned about her expulsion from the university on June 28. However, the committee deemed this perjury.
The assembly passed a no-confidence motion against the mayor on Sept. 1. In response, she dissolved the assembly on Sept. 10.
In the subsequent assembly election on Oct. 19, 19 candidates who vowed to support a second no-confidence motion won seats, making it certain for the mayor to lose her job.
Takubo, 55, was first elected mayor in May after serving as a city assembly member. After the scandal came to light, she initially said that she would resign and run in a mayoral election again, but she later withdrew her resignation.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
