The president and chairman of Fuji Television Network Inc stepped down Monday to take responsibility for a scandal involving popular TV host Masahiro Nakai, who is accused of sexual misconduct against a woman during a meal allegedly arranged by an employee of the major Japanese broadcaster.
The resignations of the top officials of the Tokyo-based company come amid allegations against Nakai, who rose to fame as a member of the now-defunct pop group SMAP. The scandal has placed the network under intense scrutiny, prompting more than 70 Japanese companies to suspend advertising on its channels.
"Looking back, I realize there were shortcomings in our response, and I acknowledge my lack of awareness regarding human rights," the outgoing president Koichi Minato said at a press conference attended by over 400 participants.
"I feel deeply the weight of my responsibility for undermining trust in the media," he said in the event at Fuji TV's headquarters in Tokyo's Daiba area. The company's chairman Shuji Kano also resigned.
The broadcaster aired the press conference, which lasted for more than 10 hours until past 2:20 a.m., without commercial breaks.
The TV station, launched in 1959, has released many hit programs such as the variety shows "Waratte Iitomo!" and "SMAP X SMAP," which lasted more than 20 years until 2016, as well as the drama "Tokyo Love Story" and the "Bayside Shakedown" series.
According to reports by weekly magazines in December, the woman reached a 90 million yen out-of-court settlement with Nakai over nonconsensual sexual activity during a meal in June 2023. The Shukan Bunshun weekly also reported that a Fuji TV programming department official was involved in arranging the meet-up.
Minato said that while the company was aware of some "trouble" in June 2023 between the woman and Nakai, who regularly appeared on the network's programming, it did not respond immediately, citing the woman's desire to keep the matter discreet and return to work.
The broadcaster said it did not investigate the matter, allowing Nakai to continue appearing on its programs.
Nakai, offering apologies to the woman, retired from show business on Thursday.
Fuji TV has also faced criticism for its response to the scandal. Its first press conference on the matter was held only on Jan. 17, with a limited number of participants and no filming allowed.
The broadcaster was criticized for its initial reluctance to establish a third-party investigation into the allegation. While it announced the formation of an independent investigation panel on Thursday, calls for top executives to resign intensified within the company.
Kenji Shimizu, executive vice president of the parent company Fuji Media Holdings Inc., replaced Minato as the broadcaster's president on Tuesday. He pledged to "never tolerate acts that violate human rights" and committed to implementing measures to strengthen the company's governance.
Fuji TV Vice Chairman Ryunosuke Endo said the latest leadership shuffle is "provisional" and that the responsibility among executives for the incident will be determined after the third-party committee completes its investigation, expected around the end of March.
The Shukan Bunshun also reported that senior Fuji TV officials regularly had female employees entertain celebrities at gatherings, an issue the third-party committee is also expected to probe.
Regarding allegations that an employee of the broadcaster was involved in arranging the meal between the woman and Nakai, Yoichi Ueno, head of public relations at Fuji TV, stated that the employee was not involved. He cited hearings with the employee and Nakai, as well as a review of the employee's smartphone communication records.
The press conference "made clear that the company had not made sufficient efforts to sincerely face the woman, understand her feelings and help her recover from the suffering," said Takahiko Kageyama, professor at Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts, who specializes in media studies.
"The management's evasive attitude during the question-and-answer session was also noticeable," Kageyama said.
© KYODO
20 Comments
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Deo Gratias
Surprise, surprise.
Did anyone NOT have this on their bingo card?
nakanoguy01
Tip of the iceberg. Expect more "talents" to be exposed for having done the same thing as Nakai. Look at the guy from Downtown.
shogun36
between this and the smap guy article, I see a lot of words and sentences.
but none of them say arrested, indicted, jail or prison…..
Martimurano
So the choices were: go to the police and file official complaints about the nonconsensual sexual activities, or negotiate the ¥90 million pay-off settlement..... needless to say, she took the money !!
justasking
Because it's settled. Out-of-court settlement contracts are legally binding, unless the other party wants to return the money, with interest of course.
tamanegi
There are multiple stories online about this sex fiend Nakai and Japanese TV companies regards to sexual harassment, sexual assault and treating women like meat.
https://mama.smt.docomo.ne.jp/article/7459089/?utm_source=dmenu_rec1&utm_medium=owned&utm_campaign=dmenu_top_personalize_targetingmedia_infinity
Aoi Azuuri
If BBC hadn't broadcast "Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop" 2023, "Johnny's and major media complex" would still continue, even such series of scandal were surely concealed.
Derek Grebe
A pound to a penny says these ceremonial resignations are followed up by placing Minato and Kano in other roles at Fuji at the same salary.
It’s all a big kabuki. Ceremony over action.
carpslidy
@derick Grene
Normally I would agree but this feels like a turning point
Never before has anything like today's marathon flogging of top executives happened let alone been broadcast on TV for 7 straight hours
grc
Aori Azuuri - thank you
wanderlust
Probably they both will surface in 6 months time as directors of a subsidiary company, suitably remunerated, keeping a low profile. Happens all the time,
P_C
Some saying this is the end of Fuji TV. No way. Change the name, change the President, and reinvent the company.
Big Motor = Wecars
Johnny & Associates = SMILE-UP
Tamarama
10 hours????
Politik Kills
FujiTV - We’re Really Sorry and it Shouldn’t Happen Again TV
Seriously though, I hope FujiTV shareholders hold a class action against Nakai for loss of revenue.
InspectorGadget
It took the intervention of a foreign investment form (owning 7% of Fuji TV) to pressure them into acting. The absolutly scathing letter is available on the Dalton Investments website here:
https://www.daltoninvestments.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/FMH-Special-Independent-Committee-English-PffD-version.pdf
Forst
Despite the importance of this press conference, I wonder how many so-called journalists who suddenly woke up asked the same questions over and over again to make it last 10 hours.
ADK99
10 hours and it's still unclear what he did???
Dale Spenser
And yet the victim's testimony has changed somewhat:
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/expert/articles/191f61880348ac4c9ea706bdbcf93316d33dbea0
GillislowTier
Seems like the kind of thing we all assume goes on in most Japanese businesses. So many times I go out and see drinking parties with higher ups, that have the younger pretty office ladies being made to tend to them. If anyone is shocked it gets like this at the higher end companies I wonder if they have been paying attention at all.
when I moved to Japan the first year our brown nosing supervisor would take us to meet our company owner and decide the seating in his office. All the white blonde girl workers would sit next to him and be told what questions to ask him lol. Everyone else was made to stand. When a big boobed girl from the uk refused to be a part of that nonsense his response was “i knew I shouldn’t have hired women like this”. Even better at drinking parties he would tell them to talk to the ceo and serve him drinks. He was rewarded for his bs by getting transferred to a different prefecture away from the ceo haha.
but it’s just rampant in Japan. Serving up female staff for powerful men to feel powerful is par the course it seems. As pathetic as it is.
grc
If Minato ‘felt deeply the weight of responsibility for undermining trust n the media’, whatever ethical and morality cells he had in both his own and his corporate body would have kicked in far, far earlier. My guess is he’s sorry only for the whole thing having come to light, for which as other commenters have said we have the foreign shareholder to thank