<figure id="attachment_410153" class="wp-caption alignnone" style="width: 5007px;" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-410153"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="0975698d"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2025/01/85441e2295ef22d9350bf143aea96376-2.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-410153" class="wp-caption-text">Masahiro Nakai announced his sudden retirement. Fuji TV, the epicenter of the issue, saw its CM sponsors leaving one after another.</figcaption></figure>
Masahiro Nakai (52), former member of SMAP, who had been facing issues with women, announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on January 23.
Regarding reports of Fuji TV employees being involved in Nakai&#8217;s troubles with women, on January 22, Toru Ota (66), president of Kansai TV and former senior executive director of Fuji TV&#8217;s programming division at the time of the incident in 2023, held a press conference in Osaka.
Unlike Fuji TV president Koichi Minato, Otani allowed various media outlets to attend and permitted video recording.
<h2>The programming department with the power to decide the life and death of a show</h2>
President Otani became aware of the trouble immediately after it happened and reportedly informed President Minato by the end of the day. During the press conference, he reflected:
&#8220;After the trouble, there were the autumn and spring programming revisions. Within that, there was a possibility of abruptly canceling the show, but I carefully considered what impact such a move would have on her. I didn’t have the intention of protecting Nakai. Rather, I focused on what the best course of action would be to protect her.&#8221;
He recalled that, 
under the principle of protecting the victim rather than cutting Nakai, the show continued.
&#8220;The programming department has the life-and-death power to cancel shows, as well as the authority to decide the budget allocation. Mr. A, who was suspected of involvement, was the programming director. At the time, Mr. Otani was the senior executive director of programming, above the programming department head, making him the top of the top in the show production hierarchy.
The responsibility for continuing Nakai&#8217;s show without any problems is immense. It could be seen as not for protecting the woman or Nakai, but for protecting the TV station itself.&#8221;
In the end, Dareka to Nakai was put on hiatus, and it was announced that the show would end by the end of March.
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead="The commercial income after April will inevitably decline sharply. ......"></div>
Watching the turmoil at Fuji TV, other networks are reportedly rushing to improve their internal response, seemingly taking the approach of correcting our own actions by observing others. According to another television industry insider, the upper management is quite on edge.
&#8220;They have re-announced the reporting windows for scandals, sexual harassment, power harassment, etc., to all employees and temporary staff. To avoid being accused of handling things internally like Fuji TV, we are now providing direct email and phone contact details for external lawyers. Until now, most issues were dealt with internally to reach a resolution.&#8221;
The most common type of trouble, particularly, is said to be sexual in nature.
<h2>Directly reported to external lawyers</h2>
&#8220;For example, a male announcer at the network reportedly tricked job-seeking women into thinking he would give them advice on how to get hired, then took them out drinking and forcibly engaged in sexual acts. This was discovered through a complaint from a victim, but the issue was quietly swept under the rug and never made public. The announcer was simply transferred to another department without any disciplinary action.
However, due to the current scandal involving Nakai, it has become impossible to handle things internally as before. Once reports are directly made to external lawyers, it&#8217;s much harder to cover things up. The staff members are on edge, wondering what kind of cases might emerge next.&#8221;
Additionally, in one network, a ban was reportedly imposed on unnecessary meals with female announcers, and they were also prohibited from attending business dinners with clients. The situation at Fuji TV is said to be so shocking that it has sent tremors throughout the industry.
&#8220;If sponsors collectively withdraw like they did with Fuji TV, there’s a real risk of self-destruction, even without a license suspension from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications. The next concern is advertising fees, which are expected to plummet after April. Fuji TV will soon face the fear of being unable to afford production costs or pay high employee salaries.&#8221;
Following the disastrous press conference by President Minato, which only featured still images and caused a major backlash, a wave of sponsor withdrawals began. If the network makes another misstep, it could face a true, fatal blow.

 Shinji Hasuo (Nakai)

 Masahiro Nakai, who has been in trouble with a woman, announced his retirement. He has been forced to retire after all six of his regular TV programs were cancelled and he had disappeared from TV. ......

Masahiro Nakai Retires as TV Stations Tighten Transparency Amid Fuji TV Scandal

Access Ranking