It started as a scoop in a weekly tabloid: the allegation {that a} middle-aged former boy-band star turned high tv host had paid hush cash to a lady for unspecified wrongdoing.
Different articles adopted, asserting that it was a case of sexual assault, and stirring a wave of public outrage not solely towards the ex-singer but in addition his employer, a significant TV broadcaster, for the way it dealt with the scenario.
On Thursday, the person on the heart of the controversy introduced his retirement, however the episode had already become a second of reckoning. A global investor has criticized the corporate, Tokyo-based Fuji Tv, and Japan’s largest company advertisers have lined as much as boycott it. Some 75 firms, together with Toyota, SoftBank and the native operator of McDonald’s, have pulled advertisements and sponsorships.
Not a single business now seems on the station’s programming; advert spots at the moment are crammed with unpaid public service bulletins. Tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in income is at stake as indignant C.E.O.s have known as on Fuji TV to handle the problem.
“We are going to stop putting commercials with the corporate till a radical investigation is carried out, the information are clarified, and applicable motion is taken,” Takeshi Minakata, president of the drink maker Kirin, said in a statement, which added that the corporate was performing “primarily based on our human rights coverage.”
Specialists say the anger reveals a brand new intolerance for sexual misconduct set in movement by an earlier scandal. Two years in the past, it emerged that the founding father of a high expertise company had sexually abused younger males for many years. He died in 2019 with out ever dealing with any prices, and company sponsors have been accused of getting ignored the wrongdoing on the company, Johnny & Associates.
This time, huge firms are keen to point out that issues have modified.
“The Johnny scandal marked a turning level,” stated Ryu Honma, who has written extensively concerning the promoting and media industries. “The sponsors have been blamed for complicity attributable to their inaction.”
The present case got here to mild in mid-December, when a weekly tabloid known as Josei Seven reported that Masahiro Nakai, of the disbanded however nonetheless immensely fashionable group SMAP, had grow to be embroiled in “critical hassle” with a lady.
The article stated that Mr. Nakai, 52, had paid 90 million yen, or nearly $600,000, to the girl, who has not been publicly recognized. Subsequent tales by different native media extra clearly characterised what occurred as a sexual assault.
Earlier this month, Mr. Nakai admitted that an “incident” had taken place and that he had paid to settle it. He stated that he had used no violence within the encounter, which happened in June 2023, and that he due to this fact felt justified in his choice to proceed to seem on TV. There have been no official investigations into the case.
Unrelenting criticism and the advert boycott compelled him to reverse that call. On Thursday, Mr. Nakai introduced that he was retiring from leisure and dissolving his expertise company.
“I don’t assume that this fulfills all my obligations,” he said in a statement, promising to “sincerely cooperate” in any investigation. “I apologize as soon as once more from my coronary heart to the opposite social gathering.”
Anger has additionally grown at Fuji TV, the place Mr. Nakai was a preferred present host. Based on the tabloid article, it was a Fuji TV worker who arrange the assembly in 2023 between Mr. Nakai and the girl within the case.
Fuji TV initially issued a imprecise denial of “reviews in some weekly magazines.” However it later stated it was creating an in-house committee to research the allegation involving Mr. Nakai, in addition to different information media reviews that it had lengthy rewarded male expertise by arranging encounters with feminine announcers.
Fuji TV has come underneath criticism for being sluggish to confront the scenario extra immediately, and likewise for the way it finally did so: at a information convention open solely to pick out media, at which no livestreaming or cameras have been allowed.
On the information convention, held final week, Fuji TV’s president stated his firm had discovered concerning the episode proper after it occurred however didn’t disclose it.
“Our choice on the time was to not make the matter public, however to respect the girl’s want to return to work and to prioritize her bodily and psychological restoration and the safety of her privateness,” stated the president, Koichi Minato.
The information convention additionally got here after an American shareholder, an funding firm known as Dalton Investments, sent a letter to Fuji TV’s management harshly criticizing the corporate’s failure to react to — a lot much less repair — its issues.
The scenario with Mr. Nakai “displays not solely an issue within the leisure trade typically, however, particularly, it exposes critical flaws in your company governance,” the letter stated. “The dearth of consistency and, importantly, transparency in each reporting the information and the next unforgivable shortcomings in your response benefit critical condemnation.”
The day after Fuji TV’s information convention, huge Japanese firms started asserting that they have been pulling their advertisements.
On Thursday, Fuji TV’s mum or dad firm, Fuji Media Holdings, weighed in. The president, Osamu Kanemitsu, stated that it was “crucial that we regain the belief of our staff, sponsors and viewers.” He introduced that the corporate’s board had determined in an emergency assembly to determine an unbiased committee to look at Fuji TV’s response.
“It took time for the belief to unfold that they can not look the opposite approach,” stated Mr. Honma, the promoting and media critic. “When huge prospects begin to depart, it brings motion.”
