SHIZUOKA (TR) — Public prosecutors have indicted the former mayor of Ito City over a brazen academic fraud scheme, alleging she forged a university diploma using counterfeit stamps purchased on the internet, reports Jiji Press (Mar. 30).
On Monday, the Shizuoka District Public Prosecutors Office indicted 56-year-old Maki Takubo without arrest on suspicion of violating the Local Autonomy Law. Following the indictment, she is now slated to stand trial over the scandal.
According to prosecutors, Takubo is accused of fabricating her diploma from Toyo University between late May and early June of 2025.
To complete the deception, she allegedly applied counterfeit seals bearing the names of the university’s head and the chief of its law faculty. Investigators believe Takubo simply bought the fake stamps online.
She then presented the bogus certificate to the head and vice head of the Ito City Assembly in an attempt to legitimize her credentials.
The former mayor is also accused of lying to a city assembly special investigation panel during a hearing in August 2025. Despite having long known she did not actually possess a degree, Takubo falsely claimed to the committee that she only discovered she hadn’t graduated on June 28 of that year.
