<figure id="attachment_399128" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399128" style="width: 525px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="ef7e6df2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/f5d86fc8bedf751f4722e064b2788934.jpeg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399128" class="wp-caption-text">Downtown&#8221; Hitoshi Matsumoto has withdrawn his appeal to the Weekly Bunshun. The hurdles to his return to terrestrial broadcasting seem high. &#8230;&#8230;</figcaption></figure>
<p> The industry is abuzz. The reason is that &#8220;Downtown&#8221; star Matsumoto Hitoshi (61) has withdrawn his lawsuit.</p>
<p> Matsumoto was reported in &#8220;Weekly Bunshun&#8221; at the end of 2011 to have forced multiple women to perform sexual acts on him. Matsumoto denied the report as untrue and filed a lawsuit against the magazine&#8217;s publisher, Bungei Shunju-sha, and the magazine&#8217;s editor-in-chief, demanding 550 million yen in damages and the publication of a corrected article, claiming that his reputation was defamed.</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> Impatience on Matsumoto&#8217;s part</h2>
<p> The second oral argument preparation was scheduled to take place in August, but was postponed. Then, suddenly, a rumor popped up that discussions were underway for a &#8220;settlement.</p>
<p> The reason why such rumors began to emerge is thought to be due to a report in the &#8220;Shukan Bunshun&#8221; (weekly magazine). The July 18 issue of 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> In addition, according to the article, Attorney Tashiro himself contacted a person who was close to the woman. The article also reported that Tashiro himself contacted a person who was close to the woman and asked him to persuade her to withdraw from the court appearance.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> I sensed impatience on Matsumoto&#8217;s part. He must have thought that he would lose the case for sure. In order to gain as much advantage as possible, they thought the only way was to stop the victim from taking the stand, but in the end, the &#8220;Bunshun&#8221; side found out and put them in a disadvantageous situation.</span></p>
<p> The &#8220;backdoor maneuvering&#8221; backfired completely. In fact, the &#8220;backdoor maneuvering&#8221; backfired completely, aggravating the &#8220;fighting spirit&#8221; of the victimized women, and the court&#8217;s impression of the case also deteriorated.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" The circumstances that &quot;pushed&quot; them into apologizing can be found at ......"></div>
<p><span class="strongInContent">&#8220;I think they thought they had lost it now that the backdoor maneuvering had been uncovered and they knew the woman was going to fight back thoroughly. In order not to make the wound any deeper, it seems that they were proceeding with the discussion in a broken way.</span></p>
<p> The following is an excerpt from a comment jointly made by Matsumoto&#8217;s attorney, Masahiro Tashiro, and others,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> We have confirmed the contents of Matsumoto&#8217;s complaint, including the fact that there is no physical evidence to directly prove the existence or otherwise of coercion. We have decided to withdraw the lawsuit in order to avoid further burden and inconvenience to many people by proceeding with the trial.</span></p>
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<p> And..,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> In Matsumoto, I used to attend a meeting attended by women. I would like to frankly apologize if any of the women who attended the meeting were offended or hurt.</span></p>
<p> He also apologized to the women.</p>
<h2> Weakness and Pride</h2>
<p> Many people may have felt that Matsumoto&#8217;s side was not ready to make such an apology at this point, still insisting that there was no physical evidence.</p>
<p> If they would have apologized now, they would have said, when the report first came out, &#8220;The report may not be true in some respects, but we deeply apologize if we have caused any discomfort to the women,&#8221; which is the &#8220;common phrase&#8221; that entertainers make when there is a report of this kind. If he had made a comment in the usual way that celebrities usually do when there is a report like this, or if he had given a proper explanation and held an apology press conference, the situation would not have been as serious as it was. It would have been too late.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Matsumoto-san is usually a low profile person who treats all parties concerned and the media with a low profile, but there are times when I sense his &#8220;timidity&#8221; and pride, which has put him in a difficult situation. This has put him in a difficult situation.</span></p>
<p> While the court case has been attracting attention, fans&#8217; wishes for Matsumoto&#8217;s return have not disappeared, according to a producer at a key station,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> According to a producer at a key station, &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know about the forced sexual acts, but many people in the industry and in the media knew that Matsumoto and his friends were doing such glaring things. It came to light, and this is the result. In this day and age, many station staff members believe that it is better not to allow Mr. Matsumoto to return to work so that he can learn the lesson that &#8220;television will become impossible&#8221; if he is found out. In addition, before the facts were clear, Mr. Matsumoto unilaterally announced his suspension and voluntarily left the program. Naturally, this has inconvenienced the program side. Moreover, it turned out that Mr. Matsumoto&#8217;s absence did not have much of an impact, and sponsors would not give the OK if they thought about the risk of receiving complaints by having him return to TV.&#8221;</span></p>
<p> In the end, Matsumoto ended the trial with an apologetic comment. The hurdles to a return to terrestrial television are quite high.</p>


 Hiroyuki Sasaki (entertainment journalist)

 Yasuko Sakaguchi

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