Actress starring in a morning drama makes a shocking confession: “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 former popular actress’s unexpected recent situation drew 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 ‘Kay International School Tokyo’ (“KIST”), the same school as Ms. Esumi’s child. 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 the ‘notarized deed of settlement agreement’ exchanged between Mr. K and Ms. Esumi in January 2008. The notarized deed states that Mr. K will pay Ms. Esumi 230,020,400 yen in compensation and other compensation for ‘untruthful rumors spread by KIST board members that Mr. K and Ms. Esumi had a man-woman relationship.

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 that Esumi had them write the notarized deed. They submitted Iwasaki’s statement as evidence to support their claim.

Mr. Iwasaki originally trusted and got along well with Mr. Esumi. However, he gradually began to question Mr. Esumi’s words and actions. Eventually, they parted ways, and I heard that he cooperated in the trial of Mr. K’s children, who were suing Mr. Esumi.

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 to extort money from him.

Mr. K, who is crippled, was grabbed by both sides by Makiko and Mr. A (an acquaintance of Esumi’s) and taken directly to the notary public’s office, and Mr. K told me that he could not move and had to obey them.

Makiko sent me a long-winded text on LINE and said, “Can you send this to my dad (Mr. K) as Hiromi-chan’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.

I think I was deceived and used as a front for Makiko.

To ask about the lawsuit, this magazine directly interviewed Iwasaki when he came out of his Tokyo home, but he calmly repeated, “I’m sorry. He seemed to be aware of the lawsuit, but did not answer any questions.

When we interviewed the lawyer representing Ezumi about the statement, he responded as follows.

Mr. K visited the notary public office in a motorized wheelchair, and it is obvious that he cannot ‘grab the sides’ of a man in a wheelchair. In addition, Mr. Iwasaki received over 6 million yen in preferential tuition from KIST. (Therefore) Mr. Iwasaki has a motive to (testify) in favor of KIST and the plaintiffs.”

A civil trial pitting the stars of two national dramas, “Shomuni” and “Futarikko,” against each other. Which side will win?

From the May 26, 2023 issue of FRIDAY