Masahiro Nakai’s Advance Notice and Why TV Networks Took a Cautious Approach to a Resolved Issue

If Nakai was aware that it was a scandal of retirement-level proportions

Masahiro Nakai, 52, has disappeared from the entertainment world. It all started with a woman’s trouble reported in the December 19 issue of “Josei Seven” last year. About two and a half months have passed since then.

The presidents of all major commercial TV networks except Fuji Television and TV Tokyo recently held regular press conferences in rapid succession to review how they handled the situation at the time.

What NTV, TBS, and TV Asahi had in common was that they were informed in advance by Nakai’s side that the article would be published before the release of Women’s Seven. At that point, the details of the trouble were not explained.

NTV broadcasts “The! Sekai Ohten News” for NTV, “Masahiro Nakai’s Friday Smile Tatsu” and “THE MC3” for TBS, and “Masahiro Nakai’s Saturday Night Club” for TV Asahi. A TV station official recalls.

“At that time, no one imagined it would turn into such a major uproar. With various year-end and New Year’s special programs in progress, if Nakai himself had recognized it as a retirement-level scandal, he would have withdrawn from appearances at that point. However, I heard that no such announcement was made at all.”

TV Tokyo, which aired “Entertainment World All-Star Kusayakyu 2024” on December 30 last year, did not receive any advance notice from Nakai’s side, perhaps because it was a one-off program, according to President Ichiro Ishikawa,

“I first learned about this incident through the weekly magazine reports in mid to late December.”

The tide turned in the December 26 issue of Shukan Bunshun. The headline read “SEX SCANDAL,” and it became clear that the nature of the trouble was sexual in nature and that the victim woman’s anger had not abated.

“The headline of the initial report by Josei Seven was ‘Masahiro Nakai: Overcoming a Woman Trouble with a Huge Settlement Payment.’ While the details of what had happened were kept under wraps, the article stated that a settlement of 90 million yen had been reached and the matter was considered resolved. Given this framing, it’s no surprise that there was an atmosphere of optimism. However, Bunshun’s report suggested that although a settlement was reached, the woman involved was not satisfied, and further detailed coverage seemed imminent. On top of that, the term sex scandal weighed heavily. In today’s TV industry, sexual misconduct is strictly off-limits. Every network, from top to bottom, was in an uproar, holding daily discussions on how to handle Nakai’s programs,” said a television network insider.