<figure id="attachment_334351" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-334351" style="width: 4589px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a673890b"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2023/09/2105557d391cb2c34fbc07c4711271ab.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-334351" class="wp-caption-text">NHK&#8217;s &#8220;Cutting Johnny&#8217;s&#8221; Puts Nippon TV in Further Trouble: &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-size: 1rem;"> NHK has finally made a major decision regarding the sex-abuse issue of the late Johnny&#8217;s office founder, Janie Kitagawa.</span></p>
<p> According to various media outlets, the station&#8217;s chairman Nobuo Inaba mentioned at a regular press conference on September 27 about the future use of Johnny&#8217;s talents in programs. He stated, &#8220;Talent who are already contractually scheduled to appear on our programs will appear as they are, but our basic stance is that we will not accept new requests for appearances until we have confirmed that efforts to prevent recurrence are steadily being made to compensate the victims. At a subsequent press conference held by Director General of the Media Bureau Hiroo Yamana, he explained that the current situation regarding the appearance of talent affiliated with Johnny&#8217;s in the Kohaku White program &#8220;will be zero.</p>
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<p><strong> The announcement was made to avoid the risk of a flood of criticism from viewers, as NHK is paid by viewers&#8217; subscription fees and the national budget for program production and performers&#8217; fees. It is likely that the private key broadcasters will follow NHK&#8217;s lead and refrain from using Johnny&#8217;s talents in the future.</strong></p>
<p> On the same day, NTV held its regular president&#8217;s press conference at the station in Tokyo, and mentioned the use of talents from the Johnny&#8217;s agency in its annual charity program &#8220;24 Hours TV. The program, which will be broadcast live on August 26-27 this year amidst the sex abuse issue, has featured Naniwa Otoko as the main personality (MP), the 21st consecutive year since 2003 that a talent from the same agency has been used as the MC.</p>
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<p><strong> The reason the program has continued to run despite criticism that it is a &#8220;pushover of emotion&#8221; that is &#8220;too much to the nose&#8221; is because it earns large viewership ratings and fundraising. The reason why the program has continued despite criticism that it is a &#8220;pushover of emotions&#8221; and other such criticisms is because of the large viewership ratings and the amount of money donated. Therefore, the removal of Johnny&#8217;s was a fundamental change in the program&#8217;s direction, but as a result of the forced use of Johnny&#8217;s, this year&#8217;s ratings and fundraising were down significantly. As a result of the forced appointment of Johnny&#8217;s, this year&#8217;s viewer ratings and fund-raising were down significantly.</strong></p>
<p> When asked about the appointment of new talent for next year and beyond, Nippon TV President Akira Ishizawa did not deny the possibility of a change, saying, &#8220;At this point, we are undecided. He said, &#8220;At this point, it has not been decided yet,&#8221; and did not deny the change.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Nippon TV is facing a crisis as &quot;removing Johnny&#39;s&quot; accelerates."></div>
<p><strong>Nissan, a major sponsor of 24 Hour TV that has endorsed the program&#8217;s objectives since the first episode, has announced its stance, saying, &#8220;For the time being, we will not develop new promotional materials featuring our celebrities,&#8221; ahead of other companies that have used Japanese celebrities in their commercials. If the company were to use a Johnny&#8217;s talent, Nissan would have to step down as a sponsor. If faced with a choice between Johnny&#8217;s and Nissan, Nippon TV would choose Nissan without hesitation in order to keep the station&#8217;s major charity special alive,&#8221; said an advertising agency official.</strong></p>
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<p> However, this has unintentionally exposed the fact that the program is a &#8220;business&#8221; that cannot exist without complying with the wishes of its sponsors, despite the fact that it is a charity program. At that point, some have suggested that &#8220;24-Hour TV&#8221; should consider closing the curtain on its history.</p>
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<p><strong> The commercial slots for 24 Hour TV are very popular, and Nippon TV is able to raise a modest amount of money for charity after subtracting production costs. In the first place, it is common in the U.S. for large charity programs to have no commercials and the performers are paid no money, so it cannot be called a charity program when the production costs are covered by selling commercial slots. Even if they cut Johnny&#8217;s out of the program, they would have to reevaluate the significance of the program if they are now in a situation where they would fall on hard times just because Nissan withdrew from the program.</strong></p>
<p> It seems that Nippon TV will be forced to make a bigger decision than &#8220;cutting Johnny&#8217;s.</p>
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 Naomi Nishimura/Afro

 The "24-Hour Television" program has long had a long history of using Japanese celebrities as MCs, but due to the sexual assault issue, the program has been forced to reevaluate the use of these celebrities. However, this has once again called into question the fundamental significance of the program. ......

NHK&#8217;s &#8220;Confirmation of Removing Johnny&#8217;s&#8221;&#8230; &#8220;24-Hour TV&#8221; Reveals Contradictions and the &#8220;Predicament&#8221; Nippon TV Finds Itself in.

NHK’s “Confirmation of Removing Johnny’s”… “24-Hour TV” Reveals Contradictions and the “Predicament” Nippon TV Finds Itself in.

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