Photo/Illutration Nobutada Kuroiwa, mayor of Kusatsu, Gunma Prefecture, speaks at a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo on Dec. 14, 2020. (Momoko Ikegami)

The mayor of a Gunma Prefecture town denied allegations of sexual assault at a news conference for foreign media outlets held after his accuser’s ouster in a recall election made international headlines.

“I can declare that I have never laid a finger on Shoko Arai,” Nobutada Kuroiwa, mayor of Kusatsu, said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan (FCCJ) in Tokyo on Dec. 14.

Kuroiwa, 73, also said the fact that Arai, 51, has filed neither a complaint with law enforcement authorities nor a lawsuit against him is proof that she faked her claim that he had groped her.

The news conference, requested by the FCCJ and streamed online, followed the recall election on Dec. 6, in which more than 90 percent of voters cast their ballots in favor of dismissing Arai from the Kusatsu town assembly.

Arai is scheduled to discuss the issue at the FCCJ on Dec. 18.

The battle between Kuroiwa and Arai, the only female member of the town assembly, began when she accused him in November 2019 of sexual assault. In an electronic book, she said the attack took place when she met Kuroiwa at the mayor’s office in January 2015.

The mayor filed a criminal complaint against her with police. He also filed a defamation lawsuit.

Arai has stood firm in her allegations against him.

The town assembly expelled her in December 2019 for hurting “the dignity of the assembly” with her “scandalous” remarks. But the Gunma prefectural government overturned the expulsion.

Several assembly members then began collecting signatures from residents to call for a recall election, saying she had damaged the reputation of Kusatsu, a renowned hot spring resort with a population of around 6,300 north of Tokyo, with her claim.

The election result was covered by not only Japanese media but also foreign news organizations, including The New York Times, CNN and the BBC. Her ouster was described as a setback for the #MeToo movement in Japan.

At the news conference, Kuroiwa cited the Japanese justice system as a reason for going ahead with the recall election without waiting for a court verdict. He said the decision had nothing to do with her gender.

“A Japanese court battle is time consuming,” he said. “It is not because Arai is a female member of the assembly.”

The mayor also said the recall vote was not something that he and the other assembly members initially wanted, but it was used as a last resort because they believed her behavior was harming the town’s reputation.

“While she refused to explain her accusation during assembly sessions, saying she would tell everything in court, she continued with her activities as a victim by using her post as an assemblywoman,” Kuroiwa said. “Her acts damaged the dignity of the assembly and residents, and we reached a conclusion that a recall election is the only way” to stop it.

The mayor did acknowledge that the vote to oust her does not constitute proof that her accusation is baseless.

He also expressed regret that the confrontation between the two has drawn international attention.

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