“Salary Cuts Coming Next April?”—A Fuji TV Employee Shares the Unease That Remains 10 Months After the Turmoil

Who the hell is saying that?

“Some employees watched that more-than-10-hour press conference by the Fuji TV executives while working, others watched the archive later—it varied. After that, an internal briefing session was held, but in the end, it didn’t tell us what the truth was. The whole discussion proceeded on the assumption that the Shūkan Bunshun article was correct, and among people around me, many were voicing support for the female announcer who claimed she had been sexually assaulted by Masahiro Nakai (53).”

At the start of 2025, Fuji Television found itself in deep crisis. Employee A recalls those chaotic days. He adds, “We still don’t know the truth. We’re all working with a sense of lingering frustration.”

“Because sponsors pulled out one after another, there’s a rumor going around that our salaries may be affected from April next year. I feel devastated—our pay isn’t that high to begin with, and now it might be cut even further.

It may vary by department, but because of the scandal, we now have to submit prior applications for meetings or dinners and get approval from our superiors. Second parties can’t be expensed. Production budgets had already been shrinking year after year, so it didn’t feel like a sudden drop, but compared to the old days, it’s nothing. I heard that some sponsors will return in November, so that was a bit of a relief.”

The old management was swept out, and a new structure led by President Kenji Shimizu (64) took over. Has Fuji TV been reborn? A laughs bitterly.

“They’ve begun putting effort into countermeasures—like holding sexual harassment and power harassment training sessions. But honestly, these are things ordinary companies have been doing for 15 years. The content was basically ‘Let’s do the basics properly,’ and it felt ridiculous. And the ones leading the training were the very seniors known for being the embodiment of power harassment. So everyone was thinking, ‘Who the hell are you to say that now?’”

“It’s an era where if someone loudly says, ‘That person did this to me!’ you’re done immediately. Everyone is nervous. Female ADs might be the strongest people in the company now. It’s become harder to ask them to do things. Tons of colleagues have quit because they couldn’t stand it anymore. I stayed, but I seriously considered leaving.”

The 50-billion-yen lawsuit that hardly anyone talks about

After the scandal, Fuji TV employees faced hardships widely reported in the media—being refused interviews simply because they were from Fuji, denied cooperation for on-location shoots, or even told, “Please remove your name from the credits.” But A says, “There were good things too.”

“There are still performers, interview subjects, and sponsors who trust us, and we’ve come to value those relationships more deeply. All departments are working together to strictly follow compliance in order to become a proper company. But at the same time, I worry that Fuji TV’s identity—‘If it’s not fun, it’s not TV’—might fade away.”

Fuji TV filed a massive damages lawsuit totaling 5 billion yen against former president Koichi Minato (73)—long a leader in variety and drama—and former Kansai TV president Ryo Ota (67), who embodied that identity. It symbolized a break from the old good times. Yet, according to A, “It wasn’t talked about much inside the company.”

“‘If it’s not fun, it’s not TV’—deep down, everyone still believes that. And we’re working hard with the belief that only Fuji can create the kind of big, festival-like shows that move the times. Of course, it’s a phrase we absolutely cannot say publicly anymore. But we must create compelling, entertaining content. That hasn’t changed—then or now.”

Fuji TV, once the king of Japan’s golden age of television—its employees who chose to stay after the scandal are desperately struggling to rebuild.