<figure id="attachment_400076" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-400076" style="width: 5472px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d28358bf"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/e58f6de72e34e77aad23e50881f2848c.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-400076" class="wp-caption-text">Noriyuki Higashiyama (right) and Yoshihiko Inohara (left) at the apology press conference.</figcaption></figure>
 There are growing calls for the &#8220;return to show business&#8221; of Noriyuki Higashiyama, 58, who retired from show business and is now the president of SMILE-UP.
 SMILE-UP, which succeeded the former Johnny&#8217;s office and is now a company specializing in compensation for victims, announced that as of October 31, 524 (about 97%) of the 538 persons notified by the Victims&#8217; Relief Committee had agreed to compensation, of which 511 (about 95%) had been paid compensation. The company has publicly announced that it has paid compensation to 511 of them (about 95%).
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 If this continues, compensation is expected to be completed by the end of this year, and Higashiyama&#8217;s comeback to the entertainment industry after fulfilling his responsibilities will be welcomed by fans and the industry alike. &#8230;&#8230;
 Higashiyama&#8217;s name came to the fore recently in an NHK special broadcast on October 20, &#8220;The Realities of Janie Kitagawa&#8217;s &#8216;Idol Empire'&#8221;.
 It was a summary of the media, especially TV stations, which were held responsible for overlooking the sexual assault of their own talents by Mr. Janney Kitagawa.
 While some said that the program was very &#8220;worthwhile,&#8221; others said that it did not seem to sincerely reflect on the fact that they themselves were also responsible, and that it seemed to be something that happened to others.
<h2> Why should Higashiyama do it?</h2>
 Many viewers took it as a form of &#8220;purification&#8221; in response to NHK&#8217;s announcement that it would resume using former Johnny&#8217;s celebrities in its programs.
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 One of the controversial issues in the program was the way the program responded to the sister of Ryo Nakatani, a former member of the first group &#8220;Johnny&#8217;s&#8221; of the former Johnny&#8217;s Office (who passed away in 2009).
 When the sister called SMILE and asked for an apology, the head of the compensation division, a man who was the head of the compensation division, was dismissive and said that Mr. Nakatani had once published a book accusing the former Johnny&#8217;s of sexual assault, and that the former Johnny&#8217;s office had been &#8220;hurt&#8221; by it.
 There is no doubt that he was hurt.&#8221;
 He insisted that the former Johnny&#8217;s office &#8220;was definitely hurt&#8221; by Nakatani&#8217;s former book. In response to his sister&#8217;s request for an apology, he cited the fact that the person involved is dead,
 I don&#8217;t know who or what to apologize for,&#8221; she replied.
 She responded, &#8220;I don&#8217;t know who or what to apologize for. The sister asked Noriyuki Higashiyama, president of Smile Inc,
 &#8220;At least visit the gravesite of the deceased.
 She asked him to &#8220;at least visit the gravesite of the deceased,
 She asked why Higashiyama had to do it.
 &#8220;I can&#8217;t apologize from the bottom of my heart.
 I can&#8217;t apologize from the bottom of my heart,&#8221; and so on.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Compensation is proceeding smoothly. ......"></div>
At the end of the program, Higashiyama revealed that he had already apologized to Nakatani&#8217;s sister, but the general manager&#8217;s comments could be taken as the general consensus of SMILE, and by extension, President Higashiyama, and many viewers must have been stunned and angry. After the program ended, there was a wave of criticism on the Internet.
 Five days after the broadcast, &#8220;Smile&#8221; announced that the general manager had been dismissed.
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 An executive from a major entertainment company said, &#8220;Higashiyama-san is probably not the best person to be in charge of the show.
 Mr. Higashiyama probably did not know about the phone call between the general manager and Mr. Nakatani&#8217;s sister until after the program aired. If he had known, he would have dismissed her long ago. However, we cannot say that Mr. Higashiyama is not responsible. He is also responsible for appointing someone with such a low awareness of the problem as general manager, when he should have called in an outside expert to take charge of the job.
 Higashiyama retired from the entertainment industry at the same time he became president of SMILE. At the press conference announcing his retirement, one could sense his firm determination never to return to show business again, but only recently have whispers of a return to show business begun to circulate.
<h2> But recently, whispers of a return to show business have begun to emerge.</h2>
 In the first place,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I think he could have been an actor and president. The vice president of Smile, Inc. at one time, is now the director and CMO of STARTO ENTERTAINMENT, Inc. However, it is no mean feat to compensate such a large number of victims. Mr. Higashiyama must have thought it was impossible to do it single-handedly. However, the compensation is going better than expected. The &#8220;Association of Johnny&#8217;s Sexual Assault Victims&#8221; has also announced its dissolution. Once the compensation is completed, SMILE Inc. will be dissolved. When that happens, Higashiyama will lose his place, and there is talk in the industry about what he will do.
 It is understandable that there is a &#8220;longing for Higashiyama&#8217;s return,&#8221; but there is also an opinion that this is not likely to happen. A person involved in the entertainment industry as mentioned above said, &#8220;At first, the president of SMILE was not interested in returning to the company.
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 At first, they were thinking of appointing an outside person as president of SMILE, but no one was willing to accept the position. But he had no choice but to ask Mr. Higashiyama, who was most trusted by Mary and Julie, to take over the entire negative legacy of the company. There was no way he would have accepted the job without a substantial return. The company would eventually cease to exist, so how would Mr. Higashiyama make a living when that happened? If you think about it, I heard that a &#8220;lifetime guarantee&#8221; has been promised. Also, given Mr. Higashiyama&#8217;s character, once he announces his retirement, he will not simply say, &#8220;I&#8217;m coming back,&#8221; just because his role is over. The industry is still out there, but there will be criticism from the public.
 Although it seems unlikely that Higashiyama will return to acting, his fans&#8217; desire to see him as an actor will not disappear.

 Kazuhiko Nakamura

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