The only female councilor in a Japanese town has been voted out of office after accusing the mayor of sexual assault, in a recall organized by colleagues who said that she had sullied the town’s reputation.
Shoko Arai in November last year said that the mayor of Kusatsu had “forced [her] into sexual relations” in his office several years prior, allegations that he denies.
She made the claims at a news conference, saying she had been too afraid to go to the police immediately after the incident.
Arai, who was Kusatsu’s only female councilor until the vote, last year said that 73-year-old Kusatsu Mayor Nobutada Kuroiwa had “suddenly pulled me closer, kissed me and pushed [me] down on the floor” and she “couldn’t push him back.”
Kuroiwa has said the claims were impossible because his office door and curtains were open on the day of the alleged incident.
He has filed a defamation complaint with local police.
Arai was removed from office by fellow politicians in the town, who accused her of “scandalous” remarks that hurt “the dignity” of the council.
That decision was then overturned by regional authorities, but local politicians collected enough signatures from voters to stage a recall vote, public broadcaster NHK said.
A town spokesman told reporters that “2,542 out of 2,835 residents who voted supported the recall.”
Arai, 51, called the vote as “unjust” and said that she “will not be terrorized by pressure from people with power,” the Asahi Shimbun daily reported.
Her former colleagues defended the decision, with a representative for the lawmakers who organized the vote telling NHK they “want to work on restoring the damaged reputation of the town.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS