<figure id="attachment_360357" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-360357" style="width: 368px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="95584485"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/02/919206c9d54b5479bead441443c2d2f4-2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-360357" class="wp-caption-text">Finally, &#8220;Downtown&#8221; Hitoshi Matsumoto will begin his trial in March. The entertainers who attended the women are &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
 Downtown&#8221; Hitoshi Matsumoto has been accused by 11 people in &#8220;Shukan Bunshun&#8221;. As expected, there seem to be few who defend him anymore.
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 However, the &#8220;excuses&#8221; made by the comedians who were playing along with him, and the voices defending them, are disconcerting.
 In a radio program broadcast on January 30 (January 31, Japan time), Tamura Kenji, a Los Angeles-based comedian who reportedly served as Matsumoto&#8217;s &#8220;attendant,&#8221; said, &#8220;We were drinking in Osaka,
 The drinking parties we had in Osaka were never for the purpose of sexual entertainment, the payment system, or anything like that,&#8221; he said.
 He reiterated his denial of the contents of the article, saying that the drinking sessions we had in Osaka were not for the purpose of sexual acts. He added
 The article says that we treat women like objects and pay them like objects. That is absolutely not true. I want to deny this very strongly.
 Tamuken insisted, &#8220;I&#8217;d like to strongly deny this.
 Even if Tamuken said that he did not intend to do that, it was how the women felt about it.
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 I can&#8217;t reveal their names, but VIPs are coming.
 Not everyone is a fan of Matsumoto. He showed up and said, &#8220;I&#8217;m leaving,
 I&#8217;m going home.
 Some women may think, &#8220;I&#8217;m going home. That&#8217;s all,
 &#8220;I wanted to make sure the women had a good time.&#8221;
 I think that&#8217;s why he is not a &#8220;woman who wants to have fun&#8221;.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Kazutaka Ozawa, who has &quot;nothing to be ashamed of,&quot; has also suspended his activities. ......"></div>
The same is true for Kazutaka Ozawa of Speed Wagon, who was reported as an attendant in the first installment of Bunshun. His office said
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 Speedwagon Kazutaka Ozawa will continue his activities as before. This is because Ozawa&#8217;s behavior is nothing to be ashamed of. There is absolutely no fact that he set up drinking parties especially for the purpose of sexual intercourse, as reported in some weekly magazines.
 He commented, but announced a few days later that he was suspending his activities.
 I have nothing to be ashamed of.&#8221;
 Wasn&#8217;t it &#8230;&#8230;?
 However, the voices defending them have not ceased to exist.
 They would not have been able to refuse if they were asked to do something by their seniors, who had absolute power.
 They were forced to do what they did, and I feel sorry for them. They are blameless.
 But they are adults, not junior high school or high school students.
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 They are adults, and they live in the entertainment industry, which is said to be the most dangerous place in the world. If they really don&#8217;t want to do it, they should just turn it down. There are comedians who have actually refused.
 If they suffer any disadvantages as a result, they can appeal to the office. If the office does not do anything, then they should file an accusation with a weekly magazine and let the world know about it.
 No matter how powerful a comedian may be, it is unlikely that any TV station would make a discovery nowadays. If they did, it would be leaked right out and the TV station would be slammed.
 The truth is that they were probably enjoying themselves.
 It is not impossible to dismiss the possibility that they were benefiting from the event, or that they were being treated as a favor by the TV station. Why do we feel &#8220;sorry&#8221; for these attending comedians?
 On &#8220;Sunday Japon&#8221; (TBS), &#8220;Bakusho Mondai&#8221; comedian Hikaru Ota, who is the MC of the show, said of the comedians around Matsumoto, &#8220;I&#8217;m a little worried about them now,
 What worries me a little right now is that the other comedians who appear on the show may be trapped in a situation where they don&#8217;t know what to do.
 He went on to speculate on their situation,
 They often say &#8216;self-help, mutual-help, and public-help. That is an ironclad rule in times of disaster, but you have to show that you want to be helped and that you want to be saved. No matter how much people around you want to help you, you cannot help them.
 He advised, &#8220;You can&#8217;t help people no matter how much they want to help you. What about the sense of thinking that we are the same as disaster victims?
 Even if it is not against the law, there are many things in the world that we should not do. As adults, they should know that. In Kansai dialect,
 There is a saying in the Kansai dialect, &#8220;Enough is enough.
 There should be a limit to everything. Don&#8217;t be so picky about who is responsible,
 &#8220;Although there are some differences in the facts reported in the media, we regret and deeply apologize for the discomfort caused to the women.
 How much better the image would be if he apologized.
 In the end, Tamuken was cut loose even by his senior colleague, Emiko Uenuma, whom he had come to rely on.
 I wonder if he does not realize that his jitters are going to put him at an even greater disadvantage.

 Born in Sendai City, Miyagi Prefecture, Hiroyuki Sasaki became a reporter for FRIDAY at the age of 31, reporting numerous scoops during his time with FRIDAY and later working mainly for weekly magazines. Currently he also appears on TV and radio as a commentator.

 Hiroyuki Sasaki (entertainment journalist)

 In March, "Downtown" star Matsumoto Hitoshi will begin a trial with the Weekly Bunshun. The junior comedians who have been named as his attendants have been defended both inside and outside the industry. ......

The &#8220;Hitoshi Matsumoto problem&#8221; has brought out the &#8220;attending comedian&#8221; who is being defended, while further excuses are &#8220;why it makes his position worse.

The “Hitoshi Matsumoto problem” has brought out the “attending comedian” who is being defended, while further excuses are “why it makes his position worse.

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