Joichi Ito, a prominent figure in a technology and entrepreneurship project led by the government in Japan, is leaving the initiative after renewed scrutiny over his past ties to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Ito, who resigned from a high-profile position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2019 after revelations of his efforts to conceal portions of the millions of dollars he had raised through Mr. Epstein, said in a post on his website late Tuesday that he would not seek reappointment to the Japanese government-funded project called the Global Startup Campus Initiative. His term was set to expire at the end of this month.
The announcement came after the U.S. Department of Justice released another tranche of Epstein-related files, which provided more detail on the extent of Mr. Ito’s relationship with Mr. Epstein. The New York Times reported last week that these connections were complicating efforts to get the Global Startup Campus Initiative off the ground.
The Global Startup Campus Initiative is a key government project that Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has championed. Backed by more than $400 million in public funding, the program seeks to partner with leading U.S. and Japanese universities to establish a global technology hub in Tokyo.
Mr. Ito was not initially involved with the government body overseeing the project. However, in early 2024, an influential politician within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party named Mr. Ito in a memo as one of three leaders who would steer the group’s strategy.
In 2019, Mr. Ito resigned as director of the MIT Media Lab after revelations hat he had tried to conceal how much Mr. Epstein was behind the amount of funds going to the lab. He also stepped down from a position at Harvard and board seats at the MacArthur Foundation and The New York Times.
The Times reported last week that Mr. Ito’s history with M.I.T. and ties to Mr. Epstein had caused universities, including M.I.T., Harvard, Carnegie Mellon and Keio in Japan, to distance themselves from the project after being approached as potential partners.
The latest released Epstein files — which include more than 4,000 emails, records of multiple trips to Mr. Epstein’s private Caribbean island and more details regarding Epstein-directed money transfers — are likely to further deter potential partner organizations, The Times reported.
After The Times’s report, some officials within the Global Startup Campus Initiative began weighing whether to deny Mr. Ito a seat on the group’s steering committee, according to two people familiar with the discussions. On Friday, the Tokyo-based technology firm Digital Garage Inc. said Mr. Ito would step down from its board.
In his statement on Tuesday, Mr. Ito said that while at M.I.T., he had consulted with members of the university’s senior leadership regarding Mr. Epstein’s donations. He said those leaders had approved the funds on the condition that they remained anonymous to avoid elevating Mr. Epstein’s reputation. Mr. Ito said that an independent investigation by a law firm concluded he had not violated laws or university policies.
Regarding his interactions with Mr. Epstein, Mr. Ito said he never witnessed or became aware of evidence of the “horrific conduct that has since come to light.” Recently released emails show that Mr. Ito met frequently with Mr. Epstein starting in 2013 — roughly five years after Mr. Epstein was convicted in Florida of soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Mr. Ito said Tuesday that he was not seeking reappointment because the initial objectives of the project had “reached a milestone.” He added that he would also resign from his advisory role in the Digital Society Initiative, a separate government program, to focus on his work as president of the Chiba Institute of Technology.
Mr. Ito said in his post Tuesday that he had “deep regret” for the concerns that the recent media coverage and online commentary had caused about his emails and other communications with Mr. Epstein.
Many in Japan’s government continue to back Mr. Ito. Minoru Kihara, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, said in a news conference on Monday that he saw no issue with the government’s selection of Mr. Ito. Japan’s digital minister, Hisashi Matsumoto, said the government would not take action against Mr. Ito based on “suspicious information.”
The Chiba Institute of Technology also defended its president. In a statement over the weekend, the university said that a background check conducted before Mr. Ito’s appointment found “no basis for concern” regarding his activities at M.I.T. and that he had reaffirmed he had not engaged in “any illegal or improper conduct.” “Our university’s trust in President Ito remains unchanged,” the school said.
On Saturday, an individual claiming to be a student at Chiba Institute of Technology created a petition asking for Mr. Ito to resign or be dismissed. As of late Tuesday evening, the petition had more than 2,400 signatures.
River Akira Davis covers Japan for The Times, including its economy and businesses, and is based in Tokyo.
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