Chairman and president step all the way down to take duty for a widening intercourse assault scandal linked to celeb host.
Japan’s Fuji Media says its chairman and the pinnacle of its TV unit will step down instantly amid a probe into alleged sexual misconduct by a celeb TV host.
Chairman Shuji Kano and tv President Koichi Minato known as it quits on Monday, weeks after host Masahiro Nakai was accused of sexual assault, inflicting a public relations storm and mass exit of advertisers.
The 52-year-old Nakai reportedly later paid the girl 90 million yen ($580,000) and the pair signed a non-disclosure settlement.
Whereas Nakai has labored for a lot of of Japan’s TV networks, the dinner at which the incident occurred was reportedly organized by one of many broadcaster’s executives.
One of many magazines, Shukan Bunshun, additionally reported the identical government had in a separate occasion gathered feminine TV personalities at a lodge to behave as leisure for Nakai and different celebrities.
Dozens of manufacturers, together with McDonald’s and Toyota, pulled their commercials from the non-public broadcaster after employees have been accused of attempting to cowl up the scandal.
As strain mounted, Kano and Minato introduced their choice to go away.
“I want to apologise sincerely to the ladies involved for failing to supply ample care resulting from a ignorance of human rights,” Kano advised reporters.
“I apologise to the viewers, advertisers, firm members, shareholders… for the nice concern and inconvenience brought on by the sequence of reports stories,” he added.
Earlier this month, Minato admitted that Fuji TV was conscious of the scandal earlier than it was reported by native media.
The corporate denies claims that its employees have been concerned in organising Nakai’s assembly with the girl, which allegedly happened on the star’s residence.
Nakai, a former member of the boy band SMAP, which swept charts throughout Asia within the Nineties and 2000s, introduced his retirement on Thursday after he was dropped from exhibits on Fuji TV and different channels.
“I alone am liable for every thing” and “sincerely apologise”, Nakai mentioned. He had beforehand issued an announcement saying a few of what had been reported was “totally different from the information”.
Fuji Tv boasted Japan’s highest viewer rankings within the Nineteen Eighties and early Nineties, with its cleaning soap operas and standard comedy and selection exhibits.
It aired the primary domestically produced animation Astro Boy in 1963, and has additionally produced movies together with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters which gained the 2018 Palme d’Or at Cannes.
The Nakai scandal follows one other large reckoning within the business, involving now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates, to which SMAP belonged.
Johnny & Associates, which has now modified its identify, admitted in 2023 that its late founder Johnny Kitagawa had sexually assaulted teenage boys and younger males for many years.
