OSAKA -- Former Osaka Gov. "Knock" Yokoyama pleaded guilty Tuesday to molesting a 21-year-old woman inside a campaign van last April and admitted he had repeatedly lied in denying the charges.

In his first criminal trial hearing on the molestation charge, which eventually forced him to step down in December, Yokoyama, 68, acknowledged that he put his hands inside the woman's underwear.

The woman, a college student who was not identified for reasons of privacy, was working on his re-election campaign that month.