TOKYO (TR) – Joi Ito, whose name has been mentioned in recent weeks due to his ties to convicted sex offender Jeffery Epstein, is resigning from two positions with the Japanese government.
Ito, 59, currently servers as president of the Chiba Institute of Technology. Since his resignation as director of the MIT Media Lab in 2019, he has maintained that he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal acts.
On March 3, Ito announced in a statement that he is vacating his advisory role to the Digital Society Initiative for the Digital Agency “to dedicate myself fully to my role as university president.”
He will also leave his position in the Cabinet Office’s Steering Committee for the Global Startup Campus Initiative at the end of March. He said his term is expiring and his objectives have “reached a milestone.”
Epstein ties
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice released 3 million pages of documents on Epstein, who committed suicide under mysterious circumstances in 2019 after being indicted on charges including sex trafficking.
Among the documents released were numerous emails with Ito, who resigned as director of the MIT Media Lab after Epstein’s monetary contributions to the lab became public.
Following the release of the documents, Ito has maintained that he “did not know that Mr. Jeffrey Epstein had engaged in the malicious criminal acts that have been reported.”
Chiba Institute of Technology
On February 28, the Chiba Institute of Technology issued a statement in support of Ito. The institute said that it had conducted a background check of Ito prior to appointing him president in 2023.
The institute said that it “confirmed that President Ito’s activities at MIT, including fundraising, were carried out not at his sole discretion but under MIT’s authorization and oversight, and found no basis for concern regarding President Ito’s individual conduct.”
The statement went on to say that it “reaffirmed that [Ito] was never aware of the existence of any illegal or improper conduct and has never been involved in any illegal or improper conduct.”
Digital Garage
The day before, tech firm Digital Garage, Inc., which Ito co-founded, said that Ito would be stepping down from his position of senior executive vice president effective at the end of March.
As well, he will retire as director at the conclusion of the Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders scheduled to be held in June.
No reason for the changes was provided.
