A third-party investigation into Fuji TV and how it handled the sexual assault scandal of former SMAP member Nakai Masahiro has concluded that Nakai did indeed sexually assault a female employee and that the network has a culture of sexual harassment.
The panel backed the victim’s account of events, though it did stop short of saying there was a criminal case to pursue.
It said a “serious infringement of human rights occurred,” and described the incident involving the woman, who was an announcer at the company, as sexual violence “occurring as an extension of her job.”
The panel was not in a position to say whether Nakai’s actions constituted a criminal case, its head Akira Takeuchi said in a press conference.
According to their findings, the woman said she agreed to meet Nakai for dinner on the assumption others would be present. When it later became clear they would be meeting alone at his home, she said she felt unable to cancel over concerns it could have a negative impact on her career.
Notably, it found Nakai’s offer of consolation money while she was in the hospital as a form of abuse itself.
The report said days later she told doctors at work about the incident, and was hospitalized for around two months until September 2023, during which she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She had aimed to return to work, but in August 2024 she left the company.
It also showed that Nakai asked a Fuji TV employee to give the victim 1 million yen as consolation money while she was hospitalized. The report said she refused to take the money from the employee and that the employee’s action “could be evaluated as a form of secondary abuse.”
That said, it did not find that another Fuji TV employee had arranged the meeting. However, they did conclude there was a culture of sexual harassment within the network, citing two other eerily similar cases involving female employees, in addition to four more sexual harassment cases.
“Owing to Nakai’s position as major talent for Fuji TV,” there was an “overwhelming difference in authority (between him and the woman),” the panel said.
The panel said it found no evidence that an employee at the firm had arranged the meeting between the two, as first reported and then later retracted by a weekly magazine.
But Takeuchi told reporters there was a “persistent culture of sexual harassment at Fuji TV.”
The report said the panel had heard of two other cases of female staff being left alone with performers at the company, as well as four other sexual harassment cases involving senior employees who have since left the firm.
Fuji TV has promised to take action against those involved, and has promised reforms going forward.
Minato’s successor, President Kenji Shimizu, expressed contrition toward the woman at a press conference following the report’s release, saying that “as a company we are acutely aware of our responsibility.”
“Once we have confirmed the facts, we will take strict, prompt action against those involved. We must not hesitate to also make bold reforms to our corporate culture,” he said.
As part of changes to Fuji TV’s executive structure, the firm said Thursday its longtime executive managing adviser Hisashi Hieda, who had a strong influence on its management, has stepped down.
In addition to Nakai, the panel found that host Sorimachi Osamu had twice invited two female staff to dinner and verbally abused them when turned down.
The panel also heard Fuji TV host Sorimachi Osamu had, on separate occasions, invited two junior female staff members to dinner and then berated them when they rejected the offer. Following the report’s publication, he canceled his appearance later that evening on his regular news program.
Yeah, a culture of sexual harassment seems to about sum it up.
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It’s undoubtedly a positive to have the stories of the victims validated by the investigation, but that really only confirms what reasonable people had long assumed due to the fact that Nakai settled, retired, and Fuji TV went into damage control mode amidst advertisers fleeing. And while the network is saying the right thing now, it’s obviously impossible to believe them without meaningful action towards justice for the victims and change within the company. Hopefully they do live up to their word, but as SMILE-UP’s handling of the Johnny Kitagawa sexual abuse scandal has shown, saying the right thing in the immediate aftermath of something like this doesn’t at all mean it’ll be smooth sailing going forward.
