It all started as a scoop in a weekly tabloid: the allegation {that a} middle-aged former boy-band celebrity became supremacy tv host had paid peace cash to a girl for unspecified wrongdoing.
Alternative articles adopted, announcing that it was once a case of sexual attack, and stirring a flow of nation outrage now not handiest towards the ex-singer but in addition his employer, a big TV broadcaster, for the way it treated the status.
On Thursday, the person on the middle of the debate introduced his escape, however the episode had already became a presen of reckoning. A world investor has criticized the corporate, Tokyo-based Fuji Tv, and Japan’s largest company advertisers have covered as much as boycott it. Some 75 corporations, together with Toyota, SoftBank and the native operator of McDonald’s, have pulled commercials and sponsorships.
No longer a unmarried business now seems at the station’s programming; advert spots at the moment are stuffed with unpaid nation provider bulletins. Tens of thousands and thousands of bucks in earnings is at stake as enraged C.E.O.s have referred to as on Fuji TV to handle the problem.
“We will cease placing advertisements with the company until a thorough investigation is conducted, the facts are clarified, and appropriate action is taken,” Takeshi Minakata, president of the drink maker Kirin, said in a statement, which added that the corporate was once appearing “based on our human rights policy.”
Mavens say the arouse finds a unutilized intolerance for sexual misconduct all set in movement through an earlier scandal. Two years in the past, it emerged that the founding father of a supremacy skill company had sexually abused younger males for many years. He died in 2019 with out ever dealing with any fees, and company sponsors have been accused of getting disregarded the wrongdoing on the company, Johnny & Pals.
This hour, bulky companies are keen to turn that issues have modified.
“The Johnny scandal marked a turning point,” stated Ryu Honma, who has written broadly concerning the promoting and media industries. “The sponsors were blamed for complicity due to their inaction.”
The stream case got here to shiny in mid-December, when a weekly tabloid referred to as Josei Seven reported that Masahiro Nakai, of the disbanded however nonetheless immensely usual team SMAP, had turn into embroiled in “serious trouble” with a lady.
The object stated that Mr. Nakai, 52, had paid 90 million yen, or virtually $600,000, to the lady, who has now not been publicly recognized. Next tales through alternative native media extra obviously characterised what came about as a sexual attack.
Previous this pace, Mr. Nakai admitted that an “incident” had taken park and that he had paid to decide it. He stated that he had old incorrect violence within the stumble upon, which took park in June 2023, and that he subsequently felt i’m right in his choice to proceed to seem on TV. There were incorrect reputable investigations into the case.
Unrelenting complaint and the advert boycott pressured him to opposite that call. On Thursday, Mr. Nakai introduced that he was once retiring from leisure and dissolving his skill company.
“I don’t think that this fulfills all my responsibilities,” he said in a statement, promising to “sincerely cooperate” in any investigation. “I apologize once again from my heart to the other party.”
Enrage has additionally grown at Fuji TV, the place Mr. Nakai was once a usual display host. In line with the tabloid article, it was once a Fuji TV worker who arrange the assembly in 2023 between Mr. Nakai and the lady within the case.
Fuji TV to begin with issued a hazy denial of “reports in some weekly magazines.” Nevertheless it next stated it was once developing an in-house committee to analyze the allegation involving Mr. Nakai, in addition to alternative information media stories that it had lengthy rewarded male skill through arranging encounters with feminine announcers.
Fuji TV has come below complaint for being sluggish to confront the status extra immediately, and likewise for the way it sooner or later did so: at a information convention obvious handiest to make a choice media, at which incorrect livestreaming or cameras have been allowed.
On the information convention, held latter month, Fuji TV’s president stated his corporate had realized concerning the episode proper then it came about however didn’t reveal it.
“Our decision at the time was not to make the matter public, but to respect the woman’s wish to return to work and to prioritize her physical and mental recovery and the protection of her privacy,” stated the president, Koichi Minato.
The scoop convention additionally got here then an American shareholder, an funding corporate referred to as Dalton Investments, sent a letter to Fuji TV’s management harshly criticizing the corporate’s failure to react to — a lot much less recovery — its issues.
The status with Mr. Nakai “reflects not only a problem in the entertainment industry generally, but, specifically, it exposes serious flaws in your corporate governance,” the letter stated. “The lack of consistency and, importantly, transparency in both reporting the facts and the subsequent unforgivable shortcomings in your response merit serious condemnation.”
The hour then Fuji TV’s information convention, bulky Jap corporations started saying that they have been pulling their commercials.
On Thursday, Fuji TV’s mother or father corporate, Fuji Media Holdings, weighed in. The president, Osamu Kanemitsu, stated that it was once “imperative that we regain the trust of our employees, sponsors and viewers.” He introduced that the corporate’s board had made up our minds in an disaster assembly to determine an free committee to inspect Fuji TV’s reaction.
“It took time for the realization to spread that they cannot look the other way,” stated Mr. Honma, the promoting and media critic. “When big customers start to leave, it brings action.”
