<figure id="attachment_392396" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 576px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-392396"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="af2da5ae"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/09/211b0ef43d757e7e86537b0ca8a99e94.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-392396" class="wp-caption-text">Downtown&#8221; Hitoshi Matsumoto is taking a break from his entertainment activities to focus on his trial with Bunshun. &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<p>While much attention has been focused on the future of the trial between Matsumoto Hitoshi and &#8220;Weekly Bunshun,&#8221; some surprising news has come out. Some media outlets have reported that there will be a &#8220;blitz settlement.</p>
<p>To briefly review, Matsumoto was reported by &#8220;Shukan Bunshun&#8221; at the end of 2011 to have forced multiple women to perform sexual acts on him. Matsumoto denied the report in its entirety and filed a lawsuit against the magazine&#8217;s publisher, Bungei Shunju-sha, and the magazine&#8217;s editor-in-chief, seeking 550 million yen in damages for the defamation of his reputation.</p>
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<p>Matsumoto announced that he would suspend his entertainment activities in order to focus on the trial. In March of this year, the first oral argument was held at the Tokyo District Court, but Matsumoto himself did not appear.</p>
<h2>Matsumoto&#8217;s side showed &#8220;impatience.</h2>
<p>The second argument preparation proceedings were scheduled to take place in August, but were postponed. This has led to speculation.</p>
<p>In the meantime, there have been some &#8220;disturbing&#8221; developments.</p>
<p>The July 18 issue of Shukan Bunshun reported that Matsumoto&#8217;s attorney, Masahiro Tashiro, had hired a detective agency to conduct a background check on the woman who had claimed victimization.</p>
<p>According to the article, attorney Tashiro himself contacted a person close to the woman and asked him to persuade her not to appear in court.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> If the news is true, he will not win the case. If the news is to be believed, they are trying to get the upper hand by pulling out all the stops to reach a settlement, even if they cannot win the case. (A reporter for a women&#8217;s magazine)</span></p>
<p>In the meantime, Atsushi Hosono, a lawyer who appears as a commentator on information programs, updated his YouTube channel on August 28,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I wonder if they will be able to reach a settlement by the end of August. I don&#8217;t think the settlement and agreement that is going on under the surface will drag on that long.</span></p>
<p>He said that both sides are working toward a settlement, and that &#8220;there is a high possibility that a settlement will be reached.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The &quot;circumstances&quot; that prevented Bunshun from agreeing to a settlement"></div>
<p>In response to Hosono&#8217;s view, social networking sites have been</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> 《Sharp. He&#8217;s eating to the core.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> It&#8217;s possible.</span></p>
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<p>However, some reporters of weekly magazines, including the aforementioned women&#8217;s magazine journalist, said that &#8220;Attorney Hosono&#8217;s second argument preparation procedure on August 14 was postponed at the last minute.</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> However, the reporters of weekly magazines, including the aforementioned women&#8217;s magazine reporters, said, &#8220;Lawyer Hosono&#8217;s argument that the August 14 second preparation for argument was postponed just before the settlement and that the next date has not been set as the reason why he is moving toward a settlement and that there is a high possibility that it will be approved is too thin as a basis. A settlement would mean that Matsumoto&#8217;s side would withdraw the lawsuit. The only condition for this would be to have the Bunshun side admit that there was a mistake in the article, which is impossible. Because if they do that, the netizens and Matsumoto&#8217;s fans who are criticizing the weekly magazines, saying that &#8220;the magazines are writing nothing but lies&#8221; and &#8220;they are taking away a person&#8217;s life with a false article,&#8221; will say, &#8220;I&#8217;ve seen that before. &#8220;The netizens and Matsumoto&#8217;s fans who criticize the magazine will say, &#8216;I&#8217;ve seen it all before.</span></p>
<p>The netizens and Matsumoto&#8217;s fans, who have been criticizing the magazine, will attack the magazine at once, saying, &#8220;That&#8217;s what they saw.</p>
<h2>There is a big difference between being dropped by the station and being &#8220;voluntarily dropped&#8221;.</h2>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> If Matsumoto&#8217;s side withdraws the lawsuit unconditionally, it could be taken as a sign that they have decided they cannot win in court. That would be an admission that the Bunshun report is &#8220;true,&#8221; and I don&#8217;t think that will happen either.</span></p>
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<p>In addition, while there have been whispers of a reconciliation, there have also been rumors of Matsumoto&#8217;s &#8220;return to TV,&#8221; but according to a source at a TV station, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know how long it will be, but I don&#8217;t think it will be for a few years,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I don&#8217;t know how many years it will be, but for the time being, I don&#8217;t think it will happen. If the station asks Matsumoto to take a leave of absence despite the fact that it is only an allegation and he denies it, he will return if the case is settled and Matsumoto wins. However, since he voluntarily stepped down when the issue was still unclear, he is causing a lot of trouble for the station. I don&#8217;t think they would dare to use a talent whose image has been tarnished again. We have been able to get by with the talent we have replaced, and there has been no talk of any trouble with Mr. Matsumoto gone. &#8230;&#8230;</span></p>
<p>He said that although he does not assert that there will be no return, it may be very difficult.</p>
<p>And when we asked an employee of an advertising agency,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> He said, &#8220;I think it will be difficult. He is in court for an article about a particular drinking session, but it is also reported that he sexually harassed a therapist at an esthetic salon, as well as at other drinking sessions. Enthusiastic fans refuse to believe it, but many women find the women repulsive. That goes for sponsors as well. Even if a program wants to use them, the sponsors won&#8217;t shake their heads, and even the programming won&#8217;t be OK with it. There have been cases in the past where it took years for a woman to return to TV, but that is not the case now.</span></p>
<p>The hurdles to a return to TV are quite high.</p>
<p>The reason why there is so much ambiguous information about &#8220;reconciliation&#8221; and &#8220;return to TV,&#8221; which is highly unlikely, is that many people do not understand the weekly newspapers and the TV industry well. &#8211;I&#8217;m not sure how many of you are familiar with the weekly newspapers and the TV industry.</p>


 Hiroyuki Sasaki (entertainment journalist)

 Ippei Hara

 Downtown's Hitoshi Matsumoto has been on a hiatus from his entertainment activities due to a court case with Bunshun. In the midst of all this, it was suddenly reported that the trial would end with a settlement and he would resume his entertainment activities, but veteran reporters feel a great deal of discomfort... ......

Hitoshi Matsumoto’s Challenge in Returning to Television Despite Bunshun Reconciliation

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