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.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]