<figure id="attachment_369445" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3961px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-369445"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0bae1cc8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/a04911657df6401b04b8b2ede7a77f45.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-369445" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">On March 8, 2004, Daichi attended an event held in Tokyo. After this, he responded to an interview with this magazine. (April 2, 2004 issue)</span></figcaption></figure>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, what was &#8220;FRIDAY&#8221; reporting? Let&#8217;s revisit the topics that were hot at the time in Playback Friday. This time, we&#8217;ll deliver the Maō Daichi &amp; Akasaka Akira Late Night Hotel Secret Meeting &#8211; First Release of On-Site Photos! from the April 2nd, &#8217;04 issue, which was published 20 years ago.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In the issue from the previous week, dated March 26th, the magazine scooped the hotel secret meeting between actress Maō Daichi (then 48) and former member of &#8220;Hikaru GENJI,&#8221; actor Akasaka Akira (then 30). This was followed by a counterargument from Maō Daichi&#8217;s side. (The descriptions in quotes are quoted from past articles.)</span></p>
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<h3><b>On the night in question, there were four people in Daichi&#8217;s room.</b></h3>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">What the magazine reported was the illicit love affair between Daichi and Akasaka. From January 31st to February 25th of that year, the two co-starred in the play &#8220;Camellia&#8221; at the Osaka Shochikuza Theater. Throughout the play, they exchanged passionate embraces and whispered words of love not only on stage but also off stage.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">After the performances, the two would often go out for meals together, and sometimes Akasaka would secretly visit Daichi&#8217;s room late at night. Although Daichi had divorced Ken Matsudaira (then 50) the previous year, Akasaka had a wife and children. The comments from the two regarding the magazine&#8217;s article were as follows:</span></p>
<p><b>&#8220;On March 8th, when questioned by the magazine about meeting Akasaka late at night, Daichi initially appeared confused, saying, &#8216;Huh? Huh?&#8217; But then, just 15 minutes later, she changed her story and, through her manager, explained over the phone, &#8216;For treatment of my lower back pain, I had a massage therapist called to the room through Akasaka&#8217;s introduction. During that time, Akasaka also came to the room and received a massage together.&#8217;</b></p>
<p><b>Furthermore, the agency responded to inquiries from a sports newspaper, stating, &#8216;An affair is completely unthinkable. It&#8217;s not an issue.&#8217; They dismissed the magazine&#8217;s article, claiming, &#8216;During the massage, there were four people in Daichi&#8217;s room: Daichi, Akasaka, Daichi&#8217;s agency staff, and the massage therapist.'&#8221;</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On the other hand, Akasaka also denied the affair, stating,</span><b> &#8220;It&#8217;s not the kind of relationship that everyone thinks.&#8221;</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">However, the magazine had witnessed the secret meetings. The article detailed the events of the night in question, reporting the following live account: Daichi was staying in a suite on the 28th floor of the hotel in Osaka where the performers were lodged, while Akasaka was on the 27th floor. After having dinner together as usual, the two returned to their respective rooms around 10:30 PM. No one was seen visiting Daichi&#8217;s room afterward.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="On the &quot;night in question,&quot; Daichi's room was visited by ......"></div>
<p><b>&#8220;Before 1 AM, Akasaka appeared on the 28th floor. He was dressed casually in a white T-shirt, a vest, slightly worn jeans, and his favorite black hat with white trim, pulled low over his eyes. He had a black tote bag over his right shoulder, and his right hand remained in the pocket of his jeans.</b></p>
<p><b>As Akasaka approached Daichi&#8217;s room, the door suddenly opened from the inside. It seemed that the two had arranged in advance to ensure Akasaka could enter the room without being noticed.</b></p>
<p><b>Two hours passed without any new visitors. Of course, there was no sign of the massage therapist either. And when Akasaka left Daichi&#8217;s room, a few minutes later, the lights in the suite went out.</b></p>
<p><b>At 10:30 AM the next morning, staff from Daichi&#8217;s agency arrived to escort her, and there had been no other visitors to the room until then.&#8221;</b></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">At least on the night in question, Daichi&#8217;s claim that &#8220;there were four people in Daichi&#8217;s room: Daichi, Akasaka, Daichi&#8217;s agency staff, and the massage therapist&#8221; could not be proven.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It was Daichi who initially took notice of Akasaka and promoted him. In &#8217;97, when she starred in the musical &#8220;Cleopatra,&#8221; she chose Akasaka as her co-star, and since then, Akasaka had been playing opposite her. However, they did not appear together in any productions after the magazine&#8217;s report. Nevertheless, it seems that the relationship between Daichi and Akasaka continued for some time afterward. The magazine witnessed them attending a soccer World Cup qualifying match at Saitama Stadium in February 2005.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">In March 2007, Daichi announced her engagement to an interior designer 12 years her junior. Coincidentally, in the same month, Akasaka divorced his wife of five years, and later in October, he was arrested for violating the Stimulants Control Law and subsequently dismissed from Johnny&#8217;s Entertainment. Some media outlets reported that Daichi might have played a role in Akasaka&#8217;s downfall.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Akasaka was sentenced to prison for his second arrest for stimulant use in 2009, but he returned to show business in 2015, and his career seems to be progressing smoothly.</span></p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The whole &quot;adulterous secret meeting&quot; as observed by this magazine."></div>
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<figure id="attachment_369448" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 4098px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-369448"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="6adfb86c"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/214276ea2cc25efa9b4097b02dd1d35f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-369448" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In late February 2004, after finishing dinner at a blowfish cuisine restaurant in Tsuruhashi, Osaka, Daichi (right) and Akasaka (March 26, 2004 issue).</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_369449" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3816px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-369449"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0f476540"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/01c9a5f2f0626277f4b1d45188e28951.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-369449" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">After arriving at the hotel and returning to their respective rooms, Akasaka headed to Daichi&#8217;s suite shortly before midnight (April 2, 2004 issue).</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_369450" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3729px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-369450"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="4adc58b8"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/1885a735dd819ab1fd40dd9a7ad5083f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-369450" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Two hours after the previous photo, Akasaka returned to his own room with a weary gait. During this time, no one else entered or exited Daichi&#8217;s room (April 2, 2004 issue).</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_369453" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3697px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-369453"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="04fc4bee"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/45a0b26bcea69341b71cb8d62ab60617.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-369453" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">The morning after the previous photo, Daichi headed to the Shochikuza Theater. She looked energetic and full of vitality, standing tall with her back straight (April 2, 2004 issue)</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_369451" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3811px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-369451"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2f0ae96a"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/d4c37b5af70c4bb4ff6bd2332231015e.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-369451" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Daichi heading to the Shochikuza Theater one morning. Akasaka had visited his room the night before.</span></figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_369454" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 3106px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-369454"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2e9648ad"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/04/8282acdf069735e571c123e95984725d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-369454" class="wp-caption-text"><span style="font-weight: 400;">In February 2005, Daichi and Akasaka were watching a national team game at Saitama Stadium (November 16, 2007 issue).</span></figcaption></figure>
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 Taka Nozawa (7th photo)

 In this issue of Playback, we look back at what this magazine reported 10, 20, and 30 years ago. In this issue, we introduce our "rebuttal" to Mao Daichi, who denied our report on her affair with Akira Akasaka in the April 2, 2004 issue.

Mao Daichi & Akira Akasaka’s Rebuttal to Magazine’s Adultery Allegations

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