Nakai Masahiro (ex-SMAP) announces retirement amid sexual misconduct scandal, heat now turned up on Fuji TV

Former SMAP member Nakai Masahiro recently announced on his official fanclub site that he’ll be retiring from the entertainment industry, this following being exposed for settling a “sexual misconduct” incident.

“I, Nakai Masahiro, will retire from show business as of today. As for my company, Nonbiri Nakai Co., Ltd., I will be closing down as soon as the remaining procedures and business are completed. I am announcing this today because I have completed all of the talks with the various TV and radio stations I have been involved with regarding the cancellation, resignation, suspension, and termination of contracts, and I am currently in discussions with sponsors.
I do not believe at all that I have fulfilled all of my responsibilities. I will continue to face various issues and investigations sincerely and respond with sincerity. I personally take full responsibility. I am extremely sorry for causing so much trouble and loss to so many people. And once again, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to the other party. I apologize to all involved parties for the trouble. Once again, I apologize. I am very, very sorry. Thank you for the past 37 years. Farewell…”

Backtracking a bit, you’ll notice this is an about-face from his attitude immediately after the scandal broke, where he was defiant and confident he could continue with his career. He had also distanced himself from implications that execs at Fuji TV had helped setup women with men, but since then further allegations had emerged about both.

On Thursday, Shukan Bunshun published another allegation accusing the same Fuji TV executive of having set up another gathering, over drinks at a Tokyo hotel in 2022, with female TV presenters invited “to entertain” Nakai and other male TV celebrities.
One of the male entertainers whispered to a female presenter that the girls could “just have sex” with the men present, causing her to believe that she was being used to sexually entertain them, the magazine reported.

Understandably, the scandal has since deepened as he and Fuji TV came under increasing fire, including from shareholders.

In an attempt to squash things, Fuji TV then held a relatively clandestine and disastrous press conference that was described as “a blatant attempt to hide something, an attempt to buy time“, and promised an investigation but without details. That pissed off pretty much everybody, and also scared off companies, with the number pulling ads from the broadcaster now up to 75, and more shareholders pressing Fuji TV to investigate the scandal properly.

All of this really left no way forward for Nakai, as he had all of his gigs cancelled on him, and rather than things quieting down, the scandal only seemed to be growing with time. Fortunately, it seems like my cynicism about anybody holding Nakai accountable didn’t come to pass, though it does seem like a lot of it was due to him messing with the money of the broadcasters and the resulting fear from that more than anything else.

Aside from Fuji TV’s mess, three other broadcasters (TBS, Nippon TV, TV Tokyo) have said they will conduct internal investigations about their own practices following public scrutiny regarding the culture and ethics of the broadcasters. While I’d still be shocked if anything comes from all that, at least there appears to be increasing public support whenever these issues are exposed, and hopefully that will help victims feel even a bit more confident in coming forward.

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