A new development in the trial with a prestigious school! Actress starring in a morning drama testifies: “I was brainwashed by Ms. Makiko Esumi.

On April 28, this magazine reported on the bogged-down trial between former actress Makiko Esumi (56) and a prestigious international school. The unexpected “recent situation” of the once popular actress attracted a lot of attention, but it was revealed that another popular actress was actually involved in the trial.

She is Hiromi Iwasaki (46). She had sent her daughter to the same school as Esumi’s child, Kay International School Tokyo (KIST). In fact, Ms. Iwasaki worked at KIST as a staff member until February 2008, and it is said that she became close to Ms. Esumi because of that relationship.

Actress Hiromi Iwasaki is known for her starring role in NHK’s 1996 morning drama “Futarikko. In recent years, she has rarely appeared in TV dramas and is active in programs on local radio stations. What in the world does it mean that she is involved in such a muddled court case?

In April of this year, the eldest daughter, eldest son, and second son of KIST’s former board chairman, Mr. K, filed a lawsuit against Ms. Esumi. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate a notarized settlement agreement that was signed between Mr. K and Ms. Esumi in January 2008. The notarized deed states that Mr. K will pay Ms. Esumi 230,204,400 yen, including compensation.

The plaintiffs, Mr. K’s children, claim that Mr. K isolated Mr. K, who had lost the ability to make proper judgments due to illness and other reasons, from everyone around him, and then had the notarized deed written by Esumi. They submitted Iwasaki’s statement as evidence to support their claim. The statement written by Iwasaki contains the following shocking testimony.

I believe that [Esumi] took advantage of Mr. K’s inability to make normal decisions and took money from him.

[Makiko] sent me a long-written statement on line and asked, “Can you send this to my dad (referring to Mr. K) as Hiromi’s opinion? (omitted). Unable to disobey Makiko, I did as I was told and sent the LINE to Mr. K. The same thing was persistently repeated over and over again. （I was instructed by Mr. Esumi to erase them, and I erased many of them.

In his written statement, Iwasaki described his own situation in the following surprising way.

I was completely brainwashed by Makiko, and perhaps Mr. K was as well.

When we interviewed Ezumi’s attorney about the statements, he responded, “The contents of the statements are unnatural and unreasonable, and not true. A civil trial pitting the leading actresses of two national dramas, “Shomuni” and “Futarikko,” against each other. Which side will come out on top?

The May 11 issue of “FRIDAY” (May 26) will report in detail on Iwasaki’s statement, the direct interview with Iwasaki, and the response from Ezumi’s lawyer. The pay-per-view website “FRIDAY GOLD” also published several photos.