It all started as a scoop in a weekly tabloid: the allegation {that a} middle-aged former boy-band famous person grew to become best tv host had paid hush cash to a lady for unspecified wrongdoing.
Different articles adopted, announcing that it used to be a case of sexual attack, and stirring a wave of public outrage now not handiest towards the ex-singer but in addition his employer, a big TV broadcaster, for the way it treated the placement.
On Thursday, the person on the heart of the debate introduced his retirement, however the episode had already changed into a second of reckoning. A world investor has criticized the corporate, Tokyo-based Fuji Tv, and Japan’s greatest company advertisers have coated as much as boycott it. Some 75 corporations, together with Toyota, SoftBank and the native operator of McDonald’s, have pulled commercials and sponsorships.
Now not a unmarried industrial now seems at the station’s programming; advert spots are actually stuffed with unpaid public carrier bulletins. Tens of thousands and thousands of bucks in income is at stake as offended C.E.O.s have referred to as on Fuji TV to deal with the problem.
“We will be able to stop putting commercials with the corporate till a radical investigation is performed, the details are clarified, and suitable motion is taken,” Takeshi Minakata, president of the drink maker Kirin, said in a statement, which added that the corporate used to be performing “in accordance with our human rights coverage.”
Professionals say the anger finds a brand new intolerance for sexual misconduct set in movement by way of an earlier scandal. Two years in the past, it emerged that the founding father of a best ability company had sexually abused younger males for many years. He died in 2019 with out ever going through any fees, and company sponsors have been accused of getting left out the wrongdoing on the company, Johnny & Buddies.
This time, large companies are keen to turn that issues have modified.
“The Johnny scandal marked a turning level,” stated Ryu Honma, who has written widely concerning the promoting and media industries. “The sponsors have been blamed for complicity because of their state of being inactive.”
The present case got here to gentle in mid-December, when a weekly tabloid referred to as Josei Seven reported that Masahiro Nakai, of the disbanded however nonetheless immensely well-liked workforce SMAP, had turn into embroiled in “critical bother” with a lady.
The item stated that Mr. Nakai, 52, had paid 90 million yen, or nearly $600,000, to the girl, who has now not been publicly known. Next tales by way of different native media extra obviously characterised what took place as a sexual attack.
Previous this month, Mr. Nakai admitted that an “incident” had taken position and that he had paid to settle it. He stated that he had used no violence within the come across, which came about in June 2023, and that he due to this fact felt justified in his resolution to proceed to seem on TV. There were no professional investigations into the case.
Unrelenting grievance and the advert boycott compelled him to opposite that call. On Thursday, Mr. Nakai introduced that he used to be retiring from leisure and dissolving his ability company.
“I don’t assume that this fulfills all my tasks,” he said in a statement, promising to “sincerely cooperate” in any investigation. “I ask for forgiveness as soon as once more from my center to the opposite birthday celebration.”
Anger has additionally grown at Fuji TV, the place Mr. Nakai used to be a well-liked display host. In step with the tabloid article, it used to be a Fuji TV worker who arrange the assembly in 2023 between Mr. Nakai and the girl within the case.
Fuji TV to begin with issued a obscure denial of “experiences in some weekly magazines.” But it surely later stated it used to be growing an in-house committee to research the allegation involving Mr. Nakai, in addition to different information media experiences that it had lengthy rewarded male ability by way of arranging encounters with feminine announcers.
Fuji TV has come beneath grievance for being sluggish to confront the placement extra without delay, and in addition for the way it in the end did so: at a information convention open handiest to make a choice media, at which no livestreaming or cameras have been allowed.
On the information convention, held closing week, Fuji TV’s president stated his corporate had realized concerning the episode proper after it took place however didn’t divulge it.
“Our resolution on the time used to be to not make the topic public, however to recognize the girl’s need to go back to paintings and to prioritize her bodily and psychological restoration and the security of her privateness,” stated the president, Koichi Minato.
The scoop convention additionally got here after 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 repair — its issues.
The location with Mr. Nakai “displays now not just a drawback within the leisure business most often, however, in particular, it exposes critical flaws for your company governance,” the letter stated. “The loss of consistency and, importantly, transparency in each reporting the details and the next unforgivable shortcomings for your reaction advantage critical condemnation.”
The day after Fuji TV’s information convention, large Jap corporations started pronouncing that they have been pulling their commercials.
On Thursday, Fuji TV’s guardian corporate, Fuji Media Holdings, weighed in. The president, Osamu Kanemitsu, stated that it used to be “crucial that we regain the accept as true with of our workers, sponsors and audience.” He introduced that the corporate’s board had made up our minds in an emergency assembly to determine an impartial committee to inspect Fuji TV’s reaction.
“It took time for the belief to unfold that they can’t glance the opposite direction,” stated Mr. Honma, the promoting and media critic. “When large consumers begin to go away, it brings motion.”
