Fuji TV did not invite the press to the joint press conference for the drama series.

A joint press conference titled “Fuji TV Drama Live 2024 Summer” was held on July 11 at the station in Daiba, Tokyo. Media outlets reported that a total of 15 actors attended the event, including Ren Meguro (27) of the idol group Snow Man and actress Mayu Matsuoka (29), who just announced her marriage to Hiroki Arioka (33) of Hey! Say! JUMP (hereinafter “JUMP”) on July 7 this month.

According to the reports, those attending the event were Meguro and actress Kasumi Arimura (31), who star in the Tsuki 9 drama “Umi no Hajimari”; Yosuke Sugino (28), who stars in the Tsuki 10 drama “Mountain Doctor”; Eiko Koike (43) and Taiga Nakano (31), who are the W stars in the Wed 10 drama “Shinjuku Field Hospital”; and the Thu 10 drama and Thu 15, including Matsuoka, starring in the theater “Geeks: Police Station Freaks”, and Ryosuke Yamada (31), starring in the Fri. 9 drama “Billion X School”. Of the 15, Matsuoka’s comments attracted a lot of attention as it was his first public appearance since announcing his marriage.

However, Matsuoka did not report his marriage. The host, Hiroya Yamazaki (48), congratulated him, saying, “Congratulations on your marriage! and the actors and spectators applauded. Matsuoka smiled and bailed, giving off an aura of happiness. ……

The 15 cast members in the group photo were originally in the spotlight because of their marriage, so they should have been in the center of the photo. However, his position was toward the front, near the edge, and his costume was plain. The photos distributed by Fuji did not seem to convey a “congratulatory mood” at all.

Normally, each station holds a press conference to announce the production of each drama, but since the COVID-19 crisis, TBS has made it a tradition to hold a joint press conference for dramas in the GP (golden and prime time slots, 7:00pm-11:00pm).

Fuji, which has five drama slots in the GP zone, was larger than TBS, but the situation was clearly different from that of TBS.

TBS normally had reporters from various media in attendance, and even spectators. Fuji, on the other hand, allowed spectators but not media reporters. The press conference was broadcast simultaneously from the same station, with transcripts and photos of the conference. It is whispered that the reason for this was due to various unforeseen “adult circumstances.

Of course, Matsuoka’s marriage four days before the press conference was unexpected, but it seems that there were other sensitive issues as well.

Yamada-san, who belongs to the same “JUMP” as Arioka-san who married Matsuoka-san, was present at the press conference. It seems that Mr. Yamada’s office did not want to be asked about Mr. Arioka. Some fans were rough on the Internet in response to Mr. Arioka’s marriage, so they did not want to provoke “JUMP” fans any further.

In addition, Ms. Koike, who starred in “Shinjuku Field Hospital,” filed a lawsuit in July ’10 seeking damages and an apology ad from a certain sports newspaper that wrote an article about her and her husband, Wataru Sakata, 51, a former fighter, on the verge of divorce in December ’09, and He won the lawsuit in December 2001. Since then, he has been “banned” from that sports paper. However, a joint press conference cannot involve other firms.

Furthermore, Ms. Arimura and Kaito Takahashi (25) of King & Prince were reported to be dating at the end of last year, but she has yet to comment publicly. Therefore, it is rumored that they may have taken a “precautionary measure” to avoid disturbing questions from the assembled press.

The next day, the media reported on the joint press conference, but since there were no reporters or cameramen on site and it was made up of only text data and photos sent to them, the articles in all media did not look very different from each other.

Even so, the amount of text data Fuji sent us was enormous, and some media outlets ran as many as five articles. It was a big event with 15 actors, but it was broadcast only on Saturday morning, June 29, in the Kanto region. I honestly wonder how much of the event was a publicity stunt. There was some criticism internally, saying, “If they didn’t invite the press, was it necessary to imitate TBS and hold a joint press conference?

Perhaps a press conference for each production would have been better for both the drama and the viewers.

FRIDAY Digital welcomes your information and tip-offs. Please send your information to the following information form or to the official X.

Information form: https://friday.kodansha.co.jp/tips

Official X: https://twitter.com/FRIDAY_twit