In case you are wondering why Sato Jirou and Hashimoto Ai are in the news this week, it all came about because of an article by Bunshun Online on 1 July. Since the situation is still developing, I thought that it would be good to do a summary of the developments to date. In addition, there are some points which arose both online and offline about this situation so I'll be sharing that along with my thoughts as well. Hope that this helps everyone to understand better what is going on.
Timeline
1 Jul 2026:
Bunshun Online reported that there was a harassment controversy which happened during the filming of FujiTV Spring 2026 drama "Fuufu bessei deka" starring Sato and Hashimoto who played a married couple. While filming Ep 1, Sato had touched Hashimoto's chin which was supposedly an ad-lib not in the script. This caused the filming to be halted.
Apparently, Hashimoto had suffered severe sexual harassment from someone (not named in the article) while working on a stage play more than 10 years ago. This caused her to develop a trauma that made it necessary for her agency to set some "regulations" beforehand regarding body contact with her male co-stars in order for her not to be triggered emotionally.
The issue was, at the point when Hashimoto was offered this role, her agency reportedly told FujiTV about her situation and asked if it was OK for her to accept the offer despite her restrictions. As the focus of this drama was not on the romance of the lead couple and that there were no expected intimate scenes between the actors, it was decided then that it would be fine for Hashimoto to take on this role. However, Sato was never told about her condition and only came to know about it after Hashimoto's adverse reaction after the filming of the scene in question. Since then, there was a rule imposed on the set that any physical contact with Hashimoto except on the shoulders and arms were to be communicated and agreed on in advance.
After the filming halt, Sato visited Hashimoto's dressing room where another staff member was also present. He expressed his "dissatisfaction" at not being told beforehand about her situation and allegedly told her that she should have considered the character setting of them being a married couple before taking on the offer and manage the situation better by making sure her co-stars were aware of what they should do and avoid doing. In Bunshun's article, it was said that these comments had come across as negating Hashimoto's career to date, questioned her ability to continue as an actress and formed the basis of the harassment controversy.
On the same day, Sato issued an official statement in writing as well as on his X account where he hit back at Bunshun for cooking up a story. He stressed that he never scolded Hashimoto nor told her to quit being an actress especially if she had a situation which she had to hide from her co-stars. Sato said that his advice to her delivered in a calm tone and in the presence of a staff member was that if being open about her situation was proving to be very difficult, this would have an adverse impact on the safety of everyone and affect the production as well going forward. Moreover, he had already gotten confirmation from specialists in the field of dealing with harassment matters such as lawyers that he did not commit anything which would amount to harassment. However, Bunshun's article had painted him as a Showa-era old man who was bullying a weak and vulnerable woman by twisting the facts.
2 July 2026:
FujiTV issued a statement. While they did not name Sato and Hashimoto, the statement claimed that the issue of contention was not with the touching of the chin but rather the actor's words spoken in the actress' dressing room which was deemed to be harassment by external lawyers engaged to investigate this matter.
However, FujiTV was strongly criticised online, by industry insiders and in various media reports for their failure to communicate the situation promptly and clearly to the parties involved beforehand. By effectively pushing the blame to Sato, it was seen as a move to shirk responsibility in this mess.
3 July 2026:
Hashimoto's agency issued a statement to support FujiTV's stand and assessment of the matter. However, Hashimoto herself had not spoken publicly nor posted anything on her social media accounts about this matter.
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So...some key questions raised by many people online and industry insiders and my thoughts in italics:
1) Who made the decision not to tell Sato about such an important restriction involving his co-star? And why?
While it has been said that this was a collective decision by the drama's staff and Sato's manager to avoid "causing him to be unable to act naturally" by being overly mindful of his co-star's situation, an experienced and professional actor would be able to approach the situation better if he had the facts to begin with. And it's common knowledge that he's the type who likes to do ad-libs so to "ensure that he doesn't cross the line" when it came to such a delicate situation, it would be prudent to keep him in the loop. By withholding the information from him, this was placing him in a situation where it was easy for him to get into trouble, even if it was unintentional. Even if he wanted to do something not mentioned in the script, he could have given advance notice to Hashimoto which could have prepared her mentally and given her the opportunity to say no if she was uncomfortable with the suggested move.
A point that was raised with regard to the reluctance for Hashimoto's condition to be shared with Sato had to do with the order in which they were casted. It was reported that Sato was the first to be casted as the lead. If he had expressed any reluctance to work with Hashimoto in view of the filming restriction and the care needed for her condition, it might have resulted in her not being given the offer eventually. As such, despite the common practice in the industry requiring disclosure with interested parties before production begins, the fact that this piece of information was withheld from the lead and the person who acted most directly with Hashimoto was seen as odd and unacceptable.
2) Is giving "well-intended advice" considered harassment?
Harassment or not, intention is sometimes hard to prove or disprove because how the one on the receiving end feels about the action or words spoken is the key here. And often, well-intended advice may not be well-received or even welcomed by the listener to begin with.
Perhaps Sato was trying to advise Hashimoto as a senior in the industry with the intention of helping her to be more aware and careful in managing such situations better. He thought that he might have tried to say this in a manner that was as neutral as possible. However, from Hashimoto's perspective, she might already be upset over the incident during the filming and Sato's words, no matter how "nicely packaged" could have come across as a personal attack. Whatever it is, even if there was a third party around or that the action/words were delivered in a neutral manner as much as possible, that probably wouldn't have helped to make this incident less unpleasant for either party.
3) Double standards? Lookism and ageism?
While Hashimoto was painted as a victim in the whole controversy by Bunshun, many were quick to jump in and criticse her for seemingly double standards applied to different co-stars. Screenshots of her past intimate scenes with other actors were seen circulating online and many of these were way more "intimate" than Sato's brush of her chin. This then led to discussions on whether she was OK with doing such scenes with younger and handsome actors but not with an ojisan like Sato.
The thing is, we don't know if those "more intimate" scenes she did with other actors were done with proper preparations, advance notice and with sufficient on-set support such as the presence of an intimacy coordinator. What's clear in this case was, the brush on her chin was unexpected for her. If this lack of notice was the reason causing her adverse reaction, the extent of the "onscreen intimacy" is not the key but rather the lack of mental preparations of what was to come.
As for whether there were double standards applied when it came to lookism and ageism, it is anyone's guess.
4) FujiTV back in the limelight again for the wrong reasons and mismanagement
Honestly speaking, I wasn't surprised about this situation after learning that this was a FujiTV drama. Seeing how they mishandled their last scandal when their own staff was the victim of a sexual assault, my first thought was, them again! What irked me more was seeing how quick they were to deliver a "verdict" which effectively threw Sato under the bus with scant regard of what this would do to his career and reputation. Maybe FujiTV wanted to show that they had changed since then and could act with urgency with regard to such complaints? However, what was clear was how they chose to keep a material fact from their leading actor and when something went wrong, they shirked their responsibility so quickly as if they did nothing wrong.
Maybe it's time for agencies to consider again - can they trust FujiTV to protect their actors/actresses' interests when things go wrong or will the TV station simply cut them off to protect their own interests?
5) Who will be the real victim?
As for Hashimoto's agency taking FujiTV's side so completely, this was kind of odd. I get it that they probably thought that they had already done the necessary by giving FujiTV advance warning of her condition and her agency was not the one who chose to keep this from Sato. And their intention to protect Hashimoto at all costs was understandable. As for Hashimoto not speaking out in her own words, this could backfire on her because her reaction and thoughts about what happened would be the key to put things into perspective. Then again, if she was already suffering from the way this incident had developed to date, it would be too much to expect her to say something.
While it seemed on the surface that Sato was the one taking the brunt of the negativity arising from this controversy initially, that doesn't mean that Hashimoto can manage to emerge from this unscathed. Her privacy was violated with the revelation of her psychological condition based on a past sexual harassment incident. She got labels accusing her of inconsistency in her behaviour towards other people in similar situations. And it's no secret in the industry that casting a "problematic" actor/actress is something which sponsors, casting directors and production crews want to avoid. This might further restrict the type of roles she can get in future. For one, playing a couple with another male co-star is probably something that might not happen in the near future.
As for Sato, being maligned and having his intentions twisted (as seen from his perspective) are things that he might have to grapple with for a long time especially with the negative label which FujiTV had slapped onto him. I wouldn't be surprised too if he vows to cut ties with FujiTV in future after this episode.
