One of Japan’s largest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, introduced his retirement Thursday over sexual misconduct allegations, stories stated, within the newest scandal to rock Japan’s leisure business.
Nakai’s announcement comes after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder Johnny Kitagawa for many years sexually assaulted teenage boys and younger males.
Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — a part of Johnny & Associates’s profitable secure — that swept the charts in Japan and throughout Asia in the course of the band’s practically 30 years of fame.
Reports emerged final month that Nakai, 52, who for the reason that demise of SMAP has turn out to be a profitable tv host, had paid an unnamed lady a lump sum of 90 million yen.
The allegations concern a 2023 encounter with the lady that main tabloid journal Shukan Bunshun stated concerned a closed-door setting and a “sexual act against her will”.
This month, Fuji Television suspended a weekly present hosted by Nakai whereas different main networks additionally dropped the presenter.
On Thursday native media quoted an announcement from Nakai to his paid fan membership saying he was stepping again from present enterprise altogether.
Nakai stated he had “completed all discussions with TV stations, radio broadcasters and sponsors regarding my termination, cancellation, removal and contract annulment,” the Mainichi newspaper stated.
“I will continue to face up to all problems sincerely and respond in a wholehearted manner. I alone am responsible for everything,” Nakai reportedly stated. “I’m really, really sorry for saying good-bye this way … Sayonara.”
The star’s web site was overwhelmed with guests.
Nakai issued an announcement revealed in native media earlier this month apologizing for “causing trouble” and saying a few of what had been reported was “different from the facts”.
He stated then he had been quiet on the matter to this point because of confidentiality obligations however acknowledged {that a} settlement had been reached “through the agents of both sides”.
Fuji Television has additionally come below fireplace over its dealing with of the affair, with dozens of prime manufacturers together with Toyota and McDonald’s pulling their adverts from the broadcaster.
On Thursday its shares had been down 7.8 p.c.
Shukan Bunshun and different shops have alleged a Fuji TV government was concerned in organizing Nakai’s assembly with the lady.
Fuji TV has denied these claims however stated final week it was probing the matter after a U.S. activist investor stated it was “outraged” by the corporate’s lack of transparency.
Fuji’s president, Koichi Minato, held a press convention final Friday however declined to debate particulars of the allegation.
The news convention drew further criticism as a result of solely a small variety of media had been invited and no video was allowed.
Minato additionally drew ire by solely saying an inside probe to be carried out by a committee that was but to be shaped.
Other TV channels have introduced their very own investigations into whether or not comparable occasions between celebrities and girls had been organized.
On Tuesday Nippon TV stated that it will look into “whether there were any ‘inappropriate sexual contact during meals, etc’ at production sites and elsewhere”.
TV Asahi on Wednesday stated it has carried out interviews and concluded there have been no cases of “inappropriate conduct”.
Music mogul Kitagawa, who died aged 87 in 2019, had for many years sexually assaulted teenage boys and younger males searching for stardom, his company lastly acknowledged in 2023.
Allegations about Kitagawa swirled for many years but it surely was not till that yr that they ignited requires compensation following a BBC documentary and denunciations by victims.
Japan’s showbiz business was then rocked by one other bombshell sexual assault scandal involving Hitoshi Matsumoto, one of many nation’s hottest comedians.
In November, Matsumoto stated he was withdrawing a libel case in opposition to the Shukan Bunshun journal that revealed the allegations, together with that he pressured oral intercourse on one lady, and forcibly kissed one other.
© 2025 AFP