TOKYO, June 4 (Xinhua) -- Komae City Mayor Kunihiko Takahashi resigned on Monday after a lengthy period of sexual harassment allegations, local media reported.
The 66-year-old mayor from the city, west of Tokyo, who did not participate in the assembly on Monday, tendered his letter of resignation to the chair on Friday, saying that personal reasons were responsible for his decision to resign.
The city assembly accepted Takahashi's resignation.
On Monday, Takahashi issued a statement apologizing to those who "interpreted" his actions as being harassment and said he was sorry to the public for causing disruption to the city government.
"I apologize to the employees who interpreted my actions as harassment," said Takahashi in the statement, adding that he also apologized to the public for disrupting the work of the city government.
The allegations against Takahashi first came to light in March this year and were formalized by a letter from four city employees claiming he had harassed them.
Despite being urged by his deputy Minoru Mizuno to resign after the allegations were made, with two of the cases being confirmed in May by way of an internal investigation, Takahashi had repeatedly denied the claims.
The Japanese Communist Party (JCP) had obtained an internal document of the municipal government revealing that sexual harassment claims against Takahashi had officially been made by multiple female employees.
The JCP obtaining the document showing the allegations against Takahashi was a catalyst for broader denouncements of the mayor's sexual improprieties against female city employees.
Local media reported that of those harassed, one of them said Takahashi had forced her to drink from a glass he had been drinking from, while another alleged he touched her buttocks while in an elevator.
Takahashi, in his second term as the city's mayor, was first elected in June 2012.
Deputy mayor of the city Mizuno, who apologized for his senior's actions to the assembly on Monday and promised to regain the public's trust, will serve as acting mayor until Takahashi's replacement is formally elected.
