Following Hirosue Ryoko's recent affair scandal and the arrest of Nagayama Kento for marijuana possession last week, the topic about the right amount of control and intervention in artiste management is back into the limelight. There have been some articles discussing if these scandals could have been avoided had their agencies been more aware of what their artistes were up to and stepped in before they got out of hand. Of course, there is only so much that an agency can do in keeping their artistes out of trouble but ultimately, these artistes are adults and should be personally held responsible for heir actions.
Daily Shincho published an article on 16 June 2023 talking about Hirosue's problematic behaviour over the years along with her management's unusual stance of protecting her image at all costs. Back in 2014, I also translated the articles about her alleged affair with Sato Takeru. Here are some key highlights from these sources which may give a clearer perspective into how her management situation had evolved over the past 20+ years:
Coincidentally, the part about how Hirosue was having her way with no one to give her a reality check and her agency's zealousness in covering up her behaviour with a perfect image corresponds somewhat to Candle Jun's claims that their marriage life suffered partly due to the expectations and restrictions placed on them by her agency and family.
* In the 27 Feb 2014 issue of "Josei Seven", it claimed that Hirosue Ryoko and Sato Takeru were allegedly having an affair as she was caught spending the night at the apartment block where he lived at. Sato was 9 years younger than her and she was already married to Candle Jun at that time. Prior to that, they were said to have visited a spa together. However, both parties denied the report at that time.
* In response to this affair allegation, Inoue Yoshihisa, the president of her agency Flamme, made the following comment in the 13 Mar 2014 issue of "Shuukan Shincho":
"There are as many as 200 apartments in the block where Sato lives at. You can't claim that Hirosue went to his apartment just based on that report."
A veteran reporter commented that Inoue's argument was a display of his desperate attempt to protect his artiste at all costs despite the photos taken when she visited Sato's apartment block. It was believed that Hirosue had promised not to do the same thing again thus Inoue went out of his way to speak up for her.
* This was in stark contrast to what happened to Karata Erika who was exposed 3 years ago for having an affair with the then-married Higashide Masahiro. Flamme had issued a statement saying that Karata was sorry for what she did and she was repenting for her weakness and stupidity. It pledged to prevent a recurrence by disciplining her. However, Karata herself never commented nor apologised publicly on what she did.
This then led to an influx of calls to the agency's PR department which ultimately chose to ignore all media and public queries when it got too overwhelming. Over time, the agency probably thought that the storm died down and they managed to get away with the backlash despite not doing anything concrete.
3 years on, Karata may have returned to being an actress in movies but the damage has been done and she still isn't being offered any roles in TV dramas as compared to her then-lover who managed to get back to work in a few months.
* Perhaps it was from this past experience that Flamme had initially issued a strongly-worded statement that they had given Hirosue a stern warning for her thoughtless actions when she first denied the affair. However, once Bunshun published another report in the following week with her handwritten love letters to Toba Shuusaku and further details of their affair, the agency had no choice but to apologise and put Hirosue on indefinite suspension. If not for the damning subsequent revelation and initial denial, the issue could have just ended with a warning to Hirosue.
* A look into Hirosue's relationship with Flamme could probably offer an explanation as to why her agency treats her differently from other artistes. When she debuted in 1995, she joined Geiei Production which was where Inoue first became her manager. A few years later in 1998, Inoue set up Flamme together with Hirosue who had shot to stardom very quickly in the late 1990s. Being the agency's biggest earner and most well-known artiste, it was not a surprise that she enjoyed special treatment. However, her psychological state gradually became affected once she got busier and the expectations on her to maintain this youthful and innocent image became increasingly harder to maintain since this was not really in line with her true character.
It was around the same period that rumours of her relationships with models and actors and going out to party at nightclubs became a regular thing. Problematic behaviour such as perpetual lateness on filming sets, talking on her mobile phone while keeping her co-stars waiting during rehearsals or taking taxis on long journeys without paying started to hog the headlines.
Whenever she got into trouble, it was always Inoue who apologised and got her out of the mess she created. Besides the obvious reason that the agency's survival depended on their top artiste, he also owed a debt of gratitude to her for having a part in Flamme's success as it grew into a mid-size agency with many actresses. As such, it was not surprising that Inoue had to resort to extreme measures to protect her from the scandal with Sato back in 2014.
* However, Flamme's overzealous stance in protecting Hirosue was seen as a major factor in the situation getting out of hand this time. Bunshun's report was extremely detailed with the handwritten love letters and information of her rendezvous meetings with Toba. Due to the fact that this was the second time that she was caught in an affair scandal and both happened while Candle Jun was away from home due to work, the situation this time may have been prevented if the agency had been stricter with her when the first scandal happened almost 10 years ago.
As such, it appears that Hirosue was not the controllable type and her agency had knowingly and purposely adopted a hands-free approach in managing her.
On the other hand, Nagayama Kento's situation seems to be that he was already getting out of control prior to being caught and the agency had no way of keeping him in check. As seen from the reports that came out soon after his arrest, his agency PAPADO had no idea that he was arrested until they saw the news in the morning. Logically speaking, an artiste who gets into trouble should contact his/her manager or family so that they can go into damage control and get legal help for the artiste. The thing is, did the police not allow him to contact people following the arrest or did he choose not to contact his agency voluntarily since the relationship between them seemed to be on the rocks?
Secondly, there were allegations that he was not cooperative about doing PR work for his projects. On one hand, it is a reflection that Nagayama may have been unprofessional about doing what he should do but it also means that his agency was not able to "control" him when it comes to work. I would expect that the contracts would specify PR commitments for the cast even for supporting cast members. In "Reversal Orchestra", he may not be a first or second-tier supporting actor in terms of airtime but his character was pretty significant as a potential member of the love triangle with the leads and someone who affected the heroine to a great extent. However, he was conspicuously absent from the PR tour so I was wondering then what had happened to him. If it was stated in the contract that he had to participate in PR but he willfully chose not to and the agency couldn't do anything about it, that goes to show that they are really unable to manage him effectively. If there was no contractual obligation to do PR, it is no wonder that he may be able to get away with his behaviour even if the agency had tried its best to convince him to cooperate.
Honestly speaking, whatever the artistes do in their private lives is entirely their own responsibility. The agencies can only intervene as far as the artistes allow them to but that's more applicable to the big names who have a say. Usually, the artistes who are just starting out or haven't reached a certain status may find themselves being imposed with certain regulations by their agencies so as to protect their images and keep them out of trouble. For example, many idols were imposed with the no-dating restriction but once they got to a certain age or left their groups, this no longer became an issue. In that sense, this is probably a necessary step for risk management when it comes to managing artistes although it may sometimes be viewed as over control and excessive interference with the artiste's private life.
However, once an artiste gets too big to manage, this is where there is a fine line between giving them the freedom to do what they want and over-intervening with their affairs. In recent years, one notable trend is that whenever there are reports of artistes being involved in relationships, the standard phrase has become "since this is their private matter, we will leave it to them to handle". The agencies tend not to answer to these reports on behalf of their artistes and also not try to deny, reject or object to these relationships, at least in public. This was quite different from the past where some would issue strongly-worded denials or lie through their teeth that the parties involved were just friends even with photographic evidence.
On the artiste's part, being successful equals to having a say. Of course it wouldn't feel good to have the agency interfering in your private life so there is bound to be some pushback compared to the early days when the artiste just started out. It can be difficult finding that balance between the right amount of control by the agency and the right amount of autonomy that the artiste enjoys. However, when that freedom is abused or there is no one who can keep the artiste grounded, this hands-free management style may backfire on everyone when the artiste gets into trouble.
On hindsight, it also felt as if Flamme didn't really learn its lesson in crisis management - both from Hirosue's 2014 scandal and Karata Erika's episode 3 years ago. Just sitting out the storm by waiting, playing dead or ignoring the issue is not going to solve the problem. The situation with Hirosue would probably not have gotten to this state if there was no initial denial on her part. As you may have read from the opening paragraph in Bunshun's second report about their love letters, it does give the impression that Bunshun was very offended and annoyed with Hirosue's lie that their report was not true. And that's perhaps why they were very quick to retaliate in the strongest manner possible. Regardless of whether the matter with Sato was true or not, the fact that she had 2 affair scandals during the course of her 13-year marriage with Candle June also meant that people would see her in a harsher light.
As for Nagayama, his situation offers a look into the possible scenario when you have an artiste who is on bad terms with his agency and cannot be managed effectively. One may argue that if PAPADO had managed to keep him under control for work matters, it would have an impact on how he behaved in private. The thing is, the company can only go so far in managing him and anything beyond that could come across as over-intervention. This also coincides with what Candle Jun had talked about - even the spouse of the celebrity must behave in a certain way dictated by the agency. Ultimately, even if the agency keeps Nagayama on his toes for work, he can still destroy everything with one single action of his own choice in his private life. And since there are rumours pointing to the fact that Nagayama was supposed to leave PAPADO this month, it may explain why there was a lack of active involvement and interest in managing him because most companies won't bother spending time and resources on an employee serving notice after submitting his resignation letter. This is especially so if Nagayama really does have the intention to leave and has made that clear to his agency.
People management is a very difficult thing to do in the workplace. What complicates this further in artiste management is, the artiste is both the employee and the "product" of the agency. On one hand, the agency has to manage the artiste effectively in order for him/her to make it in showbiz since its survival depends on the success of the artiste. To prevent defects or damage to the value of their priced "product", the agency often has in to step to eliminate undesirable elements from affecting their artistes. However, it also has to keep its employee happy so that they can keep him/her for as long as possible. These conflicting stands will mean that the management has to strike a fine balance between regulating the employee's behaviour and keeping the artiste happy. And when this happens, it definitely won't be surprising to see an agency being unable to take a firm stand against bad behaviour from its artiste since its survival also depends on this very "employee".
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