Esumi Makiko exposed for allegedly instigating former manager to commit vandalism

According to the 28th August issue of "Shukan Bunshun", Esumi Makiko's former manager was reported to have exposed her for instigating him to commit vandalism at  former pro-baseball player Nagashima Kazushige's new house back in 2012 due to a feud with the latter's wife. The manager who was working with Esumi at that time before she left her agency Ken-On in March this year and is still currently being employed by Ken-On, admitted to using spray paint to write abusive words such as "fool", "idiot" and "stupid son" on the outside walls of Nagashima's newly-built house in late 2012 which were published in the magazine. The manager also admitted to receiving JPY 100,000 for buying the spray paint. Industry insiders speculated that this manager could have been misled into thinking that Esumi's daughter had been bullied in school and that he was merely helping Esumi and had no  personal grudge against the Nagashima family.

Apparently, the reason why this case came to light arose from the bullying controversy which Esumi had revealed recently on her blog. In her post one month ago, she had said that she was bullied by another group of mothers whose children are attending the same private school as her eldest daughter and that she had no idea why she was treated in this manner. However, soon after her post came to light, there was a report in Shukan Bunshun which had accused Esumi of being the bullying party rather than the victim and was said to have stirred up trouble among some of the mothers by telling untrue stories after receiving complaints from some of the members in the group said to be at odds with Esumi. At that time, the Nagashima family was not mentioned in such reports although it was hinted that one of the mothers in the rival group had celebrity connections. According to Shukan Bunshun's report, it was believed that Nagashima's wife is the leader of the group of mothers at odds with Esumi thus the vandalism act was said to be directed at her.

Ever since the report came to light, neither Esumi nor Nagashima have released any comments confirming or denying the story.

This is the second big crisis in Esumi's career ever since she was exposed for not paying the national pension insurance premium for 17 years despite being the image character of the campaign to promote prompt payment of the premiums. As a result, she had her CM deals withdrawn and had to take a break from acting until she bounced back into the limelight due to Ken-On's strong industry influence. However, it is believed that since she had already left Ken-On and that the agency would not want anything to do with this scandal, Esumi will find it more difficult to overcome this crisis especially if it is proven that the report is true.

Before this scandal, Esumi had declared widely that she is planning to retire from showbiz when she hits 50 years old i.e. three years later. However, due to this issue, she might have to retire sooner than expected if things get out of hand.

Source: Tokyo Sports Web / Real Live