Smap idol Masahiro Nakai found guilty of sexual assault: Victim relieved and frustrated
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TV host Masahiro Nakai was allowed to appear in shows for around 1½ years after top executives learnt of the incident.
PHOTO: AFP
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TOKYO – A former Fuji Television employee expressed both relief and frustration in a statement on April 1 after a third-party panel report concluded she was sexually assaulted by Masahiro Nakai. The famed former TV host is a member of the now disbanded top J-pop boy band Smap.
“My honest feeling is that I was relieved after the release of the panel report and its conclusions,” the woman said in a statement issued by her lawyer.
The independent committee said on March 31 that the former employee was subjected to a “serious infringement of human rights” that occurred “as an extension of her job”, and that top executives “lacked understanding of sexual violence and showed insufficient concern for helping the victim”.
Nakai, 52, was allowed to appear in shows for around 1½ years after top executives learnt of the incident. In the light of the scandal, he retired from show business in January.
The committee was set up in January to probe Fuji TV’s response after a weekly magazine reported that he had engaged in non-consensual sexual activity with a woman at a June 2023 dinner. He later paid her a 90 million yen (S$806,760) out-of-court settlement.
The former employee’s statement also described “renewed feelings of frustration” as the panel’s nearly 400-page report revealed information she learnt for the first time about the responses of Nakai and then Fuji TV president Koichi Minato.
“What I have suffered will not go away for as long as I live, and what I have lost will not come back,” she said, adding, “I wish from my heart that cases like mine will disappear not just from the media entertainment industry but from society entirely.”
A lawyer on the panel said on March 31 that the probe found a persistent culture of sexual harassment at Fuji TV.
The panel’s findings have received national attention, with Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Seiichiro Murakami saying on April 1 he intends to confirm the report’s contents and quickly consider an appropriate response.
The panel’s report comes just days after Japanese broadcaster TBS landed in hot water over a viral clip of variety show All-Star Thanksgiving, which aired on March 29.
Comedian Egashira 2:50, whose real name is Hideharu Egashira, apologised to actress Mei Nagano after he seemingly harassed her on-camera.
In clips of the show circulating online, the 59-year-old comedian, whose gags often involve him baring his chest, chases Nagano, 25, around the set while wearing a shell bikini top, and screams at her: “Become my woman!”
He also stuck his tongue out at her in a licking motion.
While some felt that it was simply a comedic gag to make the show more interesting, backlash quickly followed. Netizens noted how uncomfortable Nagano looked and how inappropriate the stunt was.
Egashira apologised to Nagano in a video uploaded to his YouTube channel on March 30. At one point in the 16-minute clip, he got on his knees, bowed and said: “If I hurt you, Mei Nagano, I’m sorry.” He also explained that he did not notice Nagano crying during the filming of the programme and took full responsibility for the segment.
Nagano later clarified on a radio programme aired on March 31 that she had a good time filming the show and that her tears were simply a “normal physical reaction, akin to how you tear when you yawn”.
She said: “I didn’t expect him to come towards me, but he did so suddenly. And he moved so well and so fast... I was simply surprised and taken aback, so I teared up.” KYODO NEWS
