{"id":174629,"date":"2025-12-03T14:54:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T05:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=174629&#038;lang=en"},"modified":"2025-12-03T14:54:41","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T05:54:41","slug":"arita-mayor-to-resign-after-harassment-incident","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/news\/arita-mayor-to-resign-after-harassment-incident\/","title":{"rendered":"Arita Mayor to Resign After Harassment Incident"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Arita Mayor Yoshiaki Matsuo announced on December 2 that he would resign after admitting to sexually harassing a female staff member during a business trip to Nagoya. At a press conference, he said he had been heavily intoxicated and acknowledged touching the woman, while claiming he could not remember the incident. Earlier that day, the town assembly unanimously passed a censure motion calling for accountability. Matsuo said he would coordinate his departure with the assembly and abstain from alcohol while in office. He also said he was not considering running in any future mayoral election. <\/span><b>Source:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/kbc.co.jp\/news\/article.php?id=16510223&amp;ymd=2025-12-02\" target=\"\u201c_blank\u201d\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">KBC<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-174625\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_arita-town-station_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=1400%2C1050&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Arita Mayor to Resign After Harassment Incident\" width=\"1400\" height=\"1050\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_arita-town-station_2025_WEB.jpeg?w=1400&amp;ssl=1 1400w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_arita-town-station_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_arita-town-station_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=1024%2C768&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/fnn_arita-town-station_2025_WEB.jpeg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Stay informed with the latest Fukuoka &amp; Kyushu news and events in English. Sign up for our <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">free weekly newsletter <\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">today and never miss a beat. Opt out anytime, your privacy is our priority. Get the inside scoop with <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/mailmagazine\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Summaries based on public content, errors may occur during translation. Images credited independently. Send feedback using <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/en\/contact\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">this <\/span><b>form<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arita Mayor Yoshiaki Matsuo announced on December 2 that he would resign after admitting to sexually harassing&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29305,"featured_media":174625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","tags":[],"class_list":["post-174629","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-arita-2","location-saga-prefecture","news-category-politics","en-US"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/174629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29305"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174629"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fukuoka-now.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}