Masahiro Nakai’s Alleged Sex Scandal Prompts Advertiser Exodus at Japanese TV Giant Fuji https://t.co/dNteoLV6za
— Variety (@Variety) January 21, 2025
Masahiro Nakai, a former member of the boy band SMAP, is retiring from the Japanese entertainment industry following reports that he harassed a woman and that an employee of Fuji TV was involved in the incident. https://t.co/uXQOkhVJur
— Bloomberg (@business) January 23, 2025
Last month tabloid Bunshun reported that popular former idol and television personality Nakai Masahiro was paying out a 90 million yen out of court settlement to a woman and the aftershocks from this has had a major impact on Fuji which is one of the major television channels in Japan.
Unfortunately Bunshun is paywalled but this twitter thread offers a break down in English of the incident
Sequence of events for the Nakai Masahiro incident as reported by Bunshun Onlinehttps://t.co/fErfpf4VUV
— Chiaki @ Dorama World ドラマワールド (@doramaworld) January 10, 2025
It was reported by Bunshun that Nakai and the woman (known as X-san), who worked as an announcer for television channel Fuji, attended a dinner together where he sexually assaulted her. She had been asked by a superior at the station to attend the dinner and was told many other people would also be there but on the day of everyone else suddenly cancelled their plans and she was left alone in a private room with him. Afterwards she reported the incident to executives at the station but nobody did anything about it. In the end she had to quit her job and enter a hospital for treatment. She had a difficult time finding a lawyer who was willing to go against Fuji and Nakai but eventually connected with one through a program at the hospital.
After the Bunshun report went public (a year and a half after the alleged assault!) Nakai issued an apology to “everyone”. He insisted that many of the facts reported were not true and that he did not violently assault the woman and only paid the settlement so he could continue his career like normal.
His career will not continue like normal, at this point all of his shows have been cancelled and today he announced that he will be leaving the entertainment industry (yes!).
Bunshun claims that it has uncovered a system at Fuji of younger female talents being made to ‘entertain’ company executives and older male ‘celebrities’ who work with the station. These claims have prompted outcry from Fuji’s investors.
Dalton Investments, a US firm with a stake in Fuji Media Holdings, is demanding the company hold a public, televised press conference on ex-SMAP member Nakai Masahiro’s scandal by end of week. This comes as Fuji TV has lost 75 out of its 150 advertisers. pic.twitter.com/2otft7ZlK1
— Unseen Japan (@UnseenJapanSite) January 22, 2025
Shows on Fuji are now only running with government sponsored commercials and no sponsors visible.
Many other television stations are coming forward to say that they will also do investigations to make sure things like this aren’t happening at their stations as well (they probably are btw).
Keep in mind that Bunshun is a tabloid and people often take issue with their reports but no mainstream news organization would break this type of story. It is said that this is the first time a Bunshun report has lead to a news station having to give a press conference to address it.
Honestly I am so suprised that this has all lead here. When I first started hearing about it I assumed it would quickly be swept under the rug and Nakai would be back on TV in no time… I guess he assumed that too. So glad to be wrong! It’s a shame he’s not facing charges but I hope this leads to more people being exposed and to some change in the industry.
