Photo/Illutration Seishi Kumano from junior coalition partner Komeito during an Upper House Budget Committee session in June 2020 (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A member of Komeito, the coalition partner of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, has stepped down from the Diet following magazine reports on his alleged sexual harassment of a female acquaintance.

Hidehisa Otsuji, president of the Upper House, accepted Seishi Kumano’s resignation on the morning of Sept. 30.

“We again deeply apologize to the members of our party, our supporters and the public for the resignation of our party’s lawmaker,” Keiichi Ishii, Komeito’s secretary-general, said at a news conference the same day.

The weekly magazines Shukan Bunshun and Shukan Shincho reported this month that Kumano repeatedly sent obscene messages to a female acquaintance via the Line messaging app.

Kumano, 57, has been hospitalized since late August, according to Ishii.

Kumano’s family members who visited him at the hospital on Sept. 29 said he did not confirm the magazine reports but expressed his intention to resign from the Diet to take responsibility for causing trouble to other party members, supporters and the public following the reports.

He then signed a letter of resignation, according to the family members.

Kumano, who is a doctor, was first elected to the Upper House in 2016 and won his second term as a lawmaker in the July Upper House election.

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