Why Ito City Mayor Takubo’s alleged academic fraud is the talk of the town

It turns out that he had not graduated and had been “expelled” from the university.

The news is interesting only a few times a year, and the ratings are outstanding,” he said. It gets excellent ratings.

A wide-show desk clerk said so.

Ito City Mayor Maki Takubo, 55, of Shizuoka Prefecture, is making headlines for allegedly falsifying his academic credentials. Mayor Takubo served two terms on the Ito City Council before running for mayor in May. He won the election, defeating the incumbent mayor by a mere 1,800 votes.

Incidentally, the incumbent, Tatsuya Ono, graduated from Yaizu Fisheries High School in Shizuoka Prefecture. It is possible that he and Mayor Takubo graduated from the same high school.

Mayor Takubo opposed the 4.2 billion yen plan to build a new library and advocated a departure from “boxy” politics. He was also strongly opposed to the “Izu Kogen Mega Solar Project” (approx. 43 ha, 120,000 panels), and was elected. His “Citizens First” policy, which aimed for a transparent, fair, and “clean” politics free from special interests and focused on citizen services (medical care, welfare, child rearing, and education), was well received by the public.

However, the clean impression was blown away in an instant. An anonymous “suspicious letter” was sent to the city council members in response to a PR magazine that stated, “Graduated from Toyo University’s Faculty of Law.

What do you mean, “graduated from Toyo University? I remember that he not only dropped out of school but was expelled from the university.

Beware of this liar and his forged diploma.

I remember that I was expelled from school, not just dropped out,” he wrote, causing an uproar.

After his election, Mayor Takubo brought his “diploma” to the chairman and vice chairman.

At first, the mayor brought the diploma and the album, saying, ‘Here are the diplomas and the album,’ and then he opened them and closed them.

The vice chairperson revealed that he only gave us a glimpse of the album. Later, when he saw the real Toyo University diploma, he instantly recognized it as a fake.

At a press conference on July 2, he said

“When we went to Toyo University on June 28 to check, we found that he had not graduated and had been “expelled” from the university,” Mayor Takubo said.

Mayor Takubo revealed, “On June 28, I went to Toyo University to confirm this. So what was the “diploma” shown to the council chairman and others?

Suspicion that he might be lying.

There was no clear answer, and Mayor Takubo insisted, “It was a diploma. However, he is not allowed to bring the actual diploma again.

At the first press conference,” said Mayor Takubo, “I was embarrassed,” he said, with an occasional smile, “but it was a local story. At first, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to handle it because it was a local story in Shizuoka, but after seeing the press conference, I was convinced, “This is going to bounce! But after seeing the press conference, I was convinced that it was going to take off!

A commercial broadcaster’s wide-show desk clerk said.

“He was full of clues, and it was clear that he was lying, but he couldn’t provide any evidence and dodged the questions with a ‘tehepero’ look. This was the reason why many viewers felt annoyed and felt “I’m kind of pissed off. This kind of irritation leads to a feeling of “I won’t forgive him until he confesses,” and the viewers bite. The program has been aired several times, and each time the viewer rating has gone up by about 1%. TV people love to watch people who might be lying.

On July 7, Mayor Takubo held a second press conference and announced that he would resign and run again for mayor. The election will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars. Without resolving the allegations that he had lied, he seems to have decided to leave the matter to the will of the people. This is similar to the runoff election for Governor Motohiko Saito of Hyogo Prefecture.

On July 8, former newscaster Jiro Shimbo posted an image of Mayor Takubo’s press conference on X

When I said, “I don’t care if it’s the University of Tokyo,” he got really angry.

He posted, “I don’t care if he’s from Tokyo University or not. Businessman Takafumi Horie also posted the same day,

Some users responded when he posted, “I don’t give a damn about the academic credentials of an F-rank private university.

This was met with a lot of interest on the Internet, as some users responded, “If you really think about politics for the sake of the citizens, you’ll get a lot of attention.

If a politician really cares about the citizens, his academic background is irrelevant. There are many politicians who graduated from high school, and former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka only graduated from elementary school.

Mayor Ito is likely to continue to be the topic of wide TV coverage, such as how she obtained her diploma, which she “flashed,” and her re-election. We will have to keep an eye on her movements for some time to come.