The Chairman of the Board and the Chairman of the Japanese Fuji TV channel resigned for dealing with the sexual misconduct scandal in which the TV broadcaster Mashaheu Nakai was involved.
At a press conference held today, Fuji Kano TV, President of Fuji Media Holdings (FMH), announced their resignation, and they folded their heads along with other executives before they spoke. EVP Kenji Simizu has been upgraded to replace Minato as president. He pledged to “start zero” to ensure that similar incidents occur in the future, and the BBC (BBC) quoted him as saying that he “will never tolerate the acts that violate human rights.”
Advertisers withdrew ads from the network in large numbers after allegations that Fuji TV executives were involved in covering up Nakai, who was accused of sexual assault on a woman at a dinner party arranged for the network employees in 2023.
Last week, Fuji TV held an exceptional meeting of the Board of Directors and established a third -party committee that will supervise a “comprehensive and independent investigation into the facts surrounding a series of reports issued since December 2024 regarding an accident related to talent that appears in the Fuji TV program and a woman in June 2023”.
The results of the committee’s investigation are expected to appear by the end of March. The accompanying statement said: “Fuji TV and FMH are committed to full cooperation with the third party committee throughout the investigation.”
The committee added that the network “severely apologizes” to “viewers, advertisers, advertising agencies and other stakeholders for any disturbances and concerns caused by recent reports related to Fuji TV.”
The Japanese government has called for Fuji TV, which is one of the largest commercial networks in the country, to restore viewers’ confidence, and Kano and Maino’s exit will be seen as a first step in this direction. Nakai is not investigated by the police.
Fuji’s executive officials admitted their knowledge of the allegations against Nakai, a former member of the SMAP band and host of many TV programs, but they did not reveal the matter because the network “gave priority to physical and mental recovery” and the right to privacy. Local reports stated that Nakai continued to appear in the programs after the executive officials learned of the situation.
This was not upgraded to many companies, which immediately started withdrawing ads. Meanwhile, Dalton Investments and its partner in the United Kingdom, Rizening Sun Management, expressed their “anger” in a public letter to the Fuji Board of Directors published this month.
“I deeply feel the weight of my responsibility to undermine confidence in the media,” Minato said at the press conference in Tokyo. “If we look back, I realize that there are deficiencies in our response, and acknowledged a lack of awareness regarding human rights.”
Nakai denied the practice of violence with women. Reports indicate that it paid 90 million yen (580 thousand dollars) after the appearance of the claim. Last week, he declared his retirement from television and television work.
Other networks that managed their special investigations opened to search for more violations.
The Japanese entertainment industry has faced an account during the past two years or so on these issues after allegations of more than 1,000 people against the late talent agent Johnny Kitagawa.