The mayor of the town of Ginan in Gifu Prefecture submitted his resignation notice to the town’s assembly on Thursday after a third-party committee confirmed he had sexually harassed a number of his female employees.
Hideo Kojima, 74, a former town assembly member, was first elected mayor in November 2020 and was serving his first term.
On Tuesday, the town's third-party committee published a report on its investigation into the harassment. It identified 99 acts, including patting the heads and buttocks of female staff, pressuring them to lift their skirts and revealing his chest and legs to employees, as well as various other sexual comments and behavior the report deemed “inappropriate” for a town mayor.