The Fukuoka District Public Prosecutors Office's Kokura branch has charged Mayu Hara, a 42-year-old city assembly member in Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture, with violating the Automobile Driving Punishment Act after a pedestrian was struck by a passenger car and seriously injured, sources close to the investigation said on the 6th.
Hara was charged without detention, meaning she will face trial while remaining at liberty. The charge concerns a crash on a road in Nakama in October last year.
The prosecutors' office has not publicly detailed the circumstances of the collision, and the source material does not say how the case will proceed or what Hara has said about the charge.
An elected official in the dock
Hara holds a seat on the Nakama city assembly, which puts the case in front of voters in the city as well as the courts. The source material gives no indication of whether she has resigned, been suspended, or faced any move by the assembly since the charge.
Under the Automobile Driving Punishment Act, negligent driving causing injury is tried as a criminal offense. A conviction can carry a prison term or a fine, and a sitting assembly member sentenced to imprisonment loses the seat under the Public Offices Election Act.