Preview of "MADDER Sono jiken, watashi ga hannin desu" - Spring 2025

Title: MADDER Sono jiken, watashi ga hannin desu / MADDER その事件、ワタシが犯人です

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 10 April 2025

Timeslot: Thursdays at 12.15am

Broadcast by: Kansai TV

Theme Song: "CYM" by Billyrrom

Cast: Ioki Mao, Yamamura Ryuta, Higuchi Kohei, Yamashita Eiku, Kuwayama Ryuta, Yoshina Riru, Mizuno Hibiki, Kanon, Tsugumi, Rijuu Go, Nasubi, Iwakura, Okayama Hajime, Hama Shogo & Takeda Rina

Third-party Investigation Committee's Report on the Nakai Masahiro sexual violence case & FujiTV's role in it - Part 3: The Immediate Aftermath

In this installment, the focus will be on the immediate aftermath of the Nakai Masahiro sexual violence incident and FujiTV's initial handling of the incident up to the point when A was first hospitalised:

6 June 2023

• In the morning, Victim A called Doctor C (the corporate doctor of CX) while in tears and complained of various symptoms such as insomnia after what happened on 2 June 2025. 
• Doctor C booked a consultation for A with Doctor D (the physician in charge of CX's Health Consultation Room - Psychosomatic Medicine) in the afternoon. Doctor C joined the session halfway.
• A voluntarily revealed in detail what Nakai did to her and her physical and psychological symptoms after the incident during the session.
• Doctors C and D determined that A had suffered an act of sexual violence from Nakai and asked her to consider seeking legal advice. However, A was in a state of extreme psychological distress so it was difficult for her to make a judgement at that point in time.
• A expressed that even though she wanted to continue working, she was plagued by symptoms such as insomnia, loss of appetite and giddiness. She also made comments reflecting the despair and distress she felt including "I feel that I cannot regain my previous self", "There is a huge gap between the world and the situation I am in and I cannot return to that", "I feel terrible when I see the food I had and the music I heard that night", "When I read the news about people who died, I wished that I could die in place of those people".
• Doctor D diagnosed that A was suffering from acute stress response and prescribed medication to alleviate her symptoms.

On the same day, E who was the director of the announcers' department, found A with her face down on her desk and saw that the latter was in tears. E then asked A to move to a separate room to talk.

• A was crying as she related what happened to her and E determined that she had suffered sexual violence from Nakai.
• A said that she didn't want to tell anyone about this matter nor blow it up. She expressed that she wouldn't be able to live on if this incident came to light and wanted to continue working.
• When E asked if she would like to avoid working with Nakai from now on, A insisted that she was fine with it because "she didn't want to be defeated" due to this incident.
• E told A that E would consult a female manager F on this matter and informed F with the basic facts before F was to meet A.

7 June 2023
A and F met in person to talk about the case including how A was fearful of rejecting Nakai's invitation would have an adverse effect on her career and details about what happened. She also expressed her wish not to destroy her life because of this and that Nakai was still in contact with her at this point.

As A was in a state of confusion and distress when she made the comment about not avoiding Nakai at work, F stated to A that the latter should tell her if she had a change of mind going forward.

A was sent home from the office on this day.

8 June 2023

Doctor C asked for E and F to gather in the health consultation room where the three of them shared information about what A provided and came to the conclusion that A had suffered sexual violence from Nakai. At the advice of Doctor C, the following principles were decided mutually with E and F on how the announcers' department should deal with this case:

• Confirming with A beforehand when sharing information about this case to others
• Prioritizing the welfare of A as she was in a very unstable psychological state
• Not cancelling her TV programme appearances unilaterally
• Resuming or suspending work arrangements should be done based on doctor advice

E and F were very worried about A's physical and psychological states including the possibility of suicide.

10 June 2023

F discussed with A beforehand and allowed her to take a break from work for 1 week starting from the next Monday onwards. They decided that they would use the reason of being unwell to explain her absence.

• In the meantime, other announcers gave feedback to F that they noticed A was unwell and displayed symptoms like shivering hands and walking in an unsteady manner. 
• F consulted Doctor C and decided that they would respect A's wishes to work.
• A went back to see Doctor C and D on the same day and complained of her worsening symptoms and it was obvious that she had lost too much weight in a short time due to her loss of appetite and poor health. 
• The doctors decided that A was in the state of requiring immediate hospitalization and arranged for her to be treated at a hospital in Tokyo. A was then admitted to the gastroenterology ward first on the following day because it had available beds and would be transferred to the psychiatric ward later once there was space freed up. 
• Doctor C contacted E and F about this development. F reassured A that she should rest for a while and not worry about taking time off work.
• In the referral letter given to the hospital, A's diagnosis was stated as "depressive state and loss of appetite due to harassment by a related party at work".
• A was worried that she might not be able to return to work and went to see Doctor D on 20 June. She returned to work briefly after that.

12 July 2023

To date, the only people who A had agreed to knowing about the incident were 4 people i.e. E, F and doctors C and D. 

• However, to prevent speculation within CX and rumours surrounding A's absence, F sent an email to E asking for the reporting of this matter to the management. 
• E replied that those who had deciding powers over the people who appeared in programmes should know about this and stated that three people should be informed i.e. Ohta Tooru - the executive director in charge of programming and production, G - the director of the programing and production department and H - the human resources director.
• E also asked F to be the main contact person with A going forward. However, F was not equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to deal with A who was in a serious condition due to depression and suicidal tendencies brought about by the sexual violence she suffered. This in turn caused F to be under severe mental stress due to taking on this role.

13 July 2023

E told G in person about what happened to A but did not ask F to join this session even though F was in direct contact with A and was together with A at her consultation sessions with the corporate doctor.

• Due to the severity and sensitivity of this matter, G said that they needed to handle this with care and decided not to report this to the directors for now.
• Although E felt that such a serious case should be made known to the directors immediately, E ultimately left the judgement call to G.
• During the hearing with the committee, G revealed that the assumption he/she had back then was that this was a private dispute between a man and a woman. G misunderstood that the venue of where they met was Nakai's residence and that he and A had met with nobody else around on their own will. To date, there had been cases of celebrities and female announcers getting into romantic relationships and/or getting married so G didn't feel that this case was an infringement of human rights. 
• As to why G did not inform his/her boss Ohta about this, it was because G had been told before the session started that A didn't want word of this matter to leak. G then determined that there was a risk of that happening even if only the directors were informed.
• G also expressed his/her lack of understanding of how A came to be so ill and had to be hospitalized when she "went to Nakai's apartment voluntarily". He/she also didn't see A's point of her fear about rejecting Nakai would affect her career.
• Despite G's claims, E testified that he/she had made it very specific and clear what A had reported to them about the incident.
• It was also pointed out that G did not inform CX's compliance department despite protocols in place. G explained that if the report made it to the compliance department, it would blow things up and cause word of the incident to spread. 
• G also believed that CX was a company where "information would leak outside easily" so there was a concern that this might cause A to suffer from further unwanted attention and defamation.
• G held the opinion that female announcers were generally afraid to speak their mind and didn't want to push through things which might jeopardise their careers, affect how people view them or cause problems for the company. While G understood back then why A was so insistent on keeping this matter under wraps, he/she thought that it was wrong of him/her not to report this to the compliance department on hindsight.

On the same day, E informed H that A was going to take time off work for health reasons due to this incident.

• While H thought that this was a private issue, he/she stated that this was also a matter of duty of care for the employee concerned.
• H also realised that there was a possibility of A filing a criminal suit against Nakai and asked E if he/she knew what Nakai's stand and understanding of this case was but did not get a definitive answer from E.
• H explained the possible HR measures to take for this case and asked E to report A's situation directly to him/her going forward.
• H found out from E that G had withheld the case from Ohta and asked to be informed if this changed so that he/she could inform his/her superior accordingly. 
• H did not tell the rest of the HR department about this case and simply explained that A was taking time off work due to illness.

E told the corporate doctor C that since the case had been raised to the management, C and doctor D would only need to focus on taking care of A's physical and psychological conditions. 

• C was of the understanding that the management referred to by E included then-president Minato, Ohta, G and E and they would be in charge of CX's handling of this case as well as dealing with Nakai. 
• C assumed that this meant that Nakai's programme would be ended eventually when the new programming schedule kicked in as part of the measures to be taken by CX. This opinion was based on the previous example of "Matsumo to Nakai" being "ended" (albeit relaunched with a different title and host lineup) when Matsumoto Hitoshi took a break from work from January 2024 due to his own issue.
• CX did not seek professional advice from both doctors on the potential impact it will have on A if Nakai's programme was to continue airing on TV.
• Both doctors also did not make any statements pertaining to whether Nakai's programme should continue and if letting things remain as they are would be best in terms of not aggravating A's condition. Neither did they state that reporting this case to the compliance department would worsen A's condition.
• Doctor C had never spoken to G until 25 July 2024 for the purpose of discussing A's resignation.

Preview of "Tokusou 9 final season" - Spring 2025

Title: Tokusou 9 final season / 特捜９ final season

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 9 April 2025

Timeslot: Wednesdays at 9pm

Broadcast by: TV Asahi

Theme Song: "Nebagiba ~ Never Give Up! ~" by 20th Century

Cast: Inohara Yoshihiko, Hada Michiko, Fukikoshi Mitsuru, Taguchi Hiromasa, Mukai Koji, Fukagawa Mai, Nakagoshi Noriko & Hara Sachie

Preview of "Jinji no Hitomi" - Spring 2025

Title: Jinji no Hitomi / 人事の人見

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 8 April 2025

Timeslot: Tuesdays at 9pm

Broadcast by: FujiTV

Theme Song: "Today - Muneippai no ai wo -" by Miyamoto Hiroji

Cast: Matsuda Genta, Maeda Atsuko, Sakurai Hinako, Niiro Shinya, Heitetsu, Matsumoto Marika, Ono Takehiko, Suzuki Honami & Kohinata Fumiyo

Preview of "Gerende Meshi" - Spring 2025

Title: Gerende Meshi / ゲレンデ飯

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 8 April 2025

Timeslot: Tuesdays at 12.59am (MBS) / Tuesdays at 1.28am (TBS)

Broadcast by: MBS / TBS

Theme Song: "Romansu no kamisama" by Hirose Koumi

Cast: Shirahama Alan, Yamamoto Mizuki, Kukkii, Furutachi Yuutaro & Hirose Koumi

Preview of "Sai" - Spring 2025

Title: Sai / 災

Official website: here

O.A. Start Date: 6 April 2025

Timeslot: Sundays at 10pm

Broadcast by: WOWOW

Cast: Kagawa Teruyuki, Takehara Pistol, Matsuda Ryuuhei, Nakajima Sena, Fujiwara Kisetsu, Nakamura An, Miyachika Kaito, Jirou, Uchida Chika & Sakai Maki

Preview of "Akinai Seiden Kin to Gin 2" - Spring 2025

Title: Akinai Seiden Kin to Gin 2 / あきない世傳　金と銀２

Official website: here

O.A. Start Date: 6 April 2025

Timeslot: Sundays at 6.45pm

Broadcast by: NHK

Cast: Koshiba Fuuka, Kato Shigeaki, Matsumoto Reo, Ishino Youko, Asakura Aki, Yashima Norito, Takashima Masanobu, Kazama Morio & Tachi Hiroshi

Preview of "Itsuka, Hero" - Spring 2025

Title: Itsuka, Hero / いつか、ヒーロー

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official LINE: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 6 April 2025

Timeslot: Sundays at 10.15pm

Broadcast by: ABC TV / TV Asahi

Theme Song: "HERO" by Ishizaki Huwie

Cast: Kiritani Kenta, Miyase Ryuubi, Nagahama Neru, Izumisawa Yuki, Sota Ryousuke, Hoshino Yuna, Denden, Koseki Yuuta, Komagine Kiita, Itaya Yuka & Kitamura Yukiya

Third-party Investigation Committee's Report on the Nakai Masahiro sexual violence case & FujiTV's role in it - Part 2: The Case

* Due to the number of parties involved, the committee had cited the positions held by the parties back then and used alphabets to refer to them for the sake of clarity. Note that the alphabets used do not correspond to the initials of these people. Refer to the Part 1 post for the full table.

As Chapter 2 of the full report talks about the corporate structure and businesses of CX and FMH, I will be skipping these pages and go straight to Chapter 3. The first two pages describe the key figures in this case of which more than half of the page was talking about Nakai but there was only one line describing the victim A. 

Rather than this being unfair treatment on purpose, I gather that there was a logical reason behind this difference. With regard to A, the committee could not go into great detail to describe her because this would inevitably provide key clues leading to her identity (albeit it's already an open secret now). In addition, the extensive description of Nakai's history probably had to do with illustrating the kind of control and influence he exerted over the FujiTV employees due to his position as a "well-known, experienced and popular TV host". In a way, this reflected the gap in their status in the workplace and also how much of a disadvantage A found herself to be in before and after the incident.

The sequence of events leading to the case and what happened were described from Page 38 onwards.

Comments in blue were added by me based on open information in the media and statements made by parties of interest so far and things which you can reasonably deduce from what was in the report.

November 2021

A was invited to a meal gathering by B which was attended by two other CX employees as he wanted to get her to appear in a CX programme that he was in charge of planning. On the next day after the gathering, A sent a thank-you email through the company's internal email system to B. In response, B asked to exchange LINE contact details with A which she agreed to.

The suite room gathering (November 2021)

• In the same month, B organized a gathering held at a foreign-owned hotel chain's suite room along with talent U and Nakai. 
• On 6 December 2021, B sent a LINE message to A asking if she could attend a drinking session in the evening of 18 December 2021 (Sat) which would be attended by U. 
• A told B that she was busy until 8pm that night and could only confirm her availability on the night before the date in question. She said that she would contact B again by then.
• On 11 December, B contacted her again and said that the following people would be at the gathering i.e. Nakai, U, B, i, j, female announcers Q, R and S as well as another female staff member. B asked A to come for the gathering which would start from 6pm at Roppongi as soon as she finished her previous engagement. (Note that the media had reported previously that these "gatherings" were held multiple times at Grand Hyatt Tokyo which is located in Roppongi although this has not been confirmed.)
• A replied that she would go for a short while if that was OK with B.
• On the day before the gathering i.e. 17 December, B sent LINE messages to A asking her to call him when she reached the hotel lobby on the first floor. 
• A replied that she understood B's instruction. However, B did not tell A that the gathering was actually to be held in a suite room in that hotel.
• On the day of the gathering, A called B as instructed and was directed to the suite room to join the event when she arrived at the hotel's lobby around 8pm.
• At the gathering, U, Nakai, B, the three female announcers and A were chatting over food and drinks while the three CX employees i.e. i, j and the female staff were attending to them by pouring drinks and distributing/plating the food. 
• The group talked about various topics such as a TV programme which was to be shown on the following day and U's thoughts about retiring from showbiz. It was pointed out during these conversations that there were some statements made of a sexual nature but the report did not say who said what.
• Around 9.30pm, B hurried A to leave the gathering under the pretext of her having work the following morning. However, the truth was that A did not have any work engagements and was "chased away" for being a killjoy at the party. 
• Female announcer S also left the gathering around 10pm.
• Note that there was a section about this particular gathering where something else happened but it did not involve A.

After the suite room gathering, B asked A to attend another 4 meal gatherings on different occasions:

24 December 2021

At CX's year-end party which was attended by cast and staff members, A, B and Nakai were also at the event. After this event, A sent a thank-you message to B. (It was not specified why she had to do so especially if the party was initially meant for "everyone".)

17 January 2022

After the recording of a CX programme, B asked A to come to a meal gathering at a yakiniku restaurant which was also attended by U, Nakai and the guests who had appeared in that day's recording. However, A said that she had an engagement early in the next morning and rejected the offer.

(Based on this description, the programme in question should most likely be "Matsumo to Nakai" and U should be Matsumoto Hitoshi. Since the show only became a regular series in 2023, the recording in January was most likely for the only episode aired on 19 February 2022 - the SP with 8 guests. However, it's not clear from the report how many of them did attend this gathering.

On a related note, if U was indeed Matsumoto, it would make sense why he would refuse to attend the committee's interview about this case given that he and Nakai are longtime buddies. Besides, Matsumoto himself is still taking a hiatus from work due to his own scandal so he probably wouldn't want more attention directed to himself. And this was on top of his problematic behaviour towards another female announcer also mentioned in this report.)

May 2022 

Former CX president Minato's 70th birthday celebration was held at a yakiniku restaurant. Besides Minato himself, A and B, another 10 CX employees also attended this celebration. Other than A, there was one another female announcer who was there.

According to B's testimony, he claimed that he could not remember if it was him who invited A to this event. There was no proof or testimony from this party's attendees about any inappropriate behaviour during the event.

August 2022

After the recording of a CX programme, Nakai invited U, B and some staff members to a meal gathering. Nakai asked B via SMS to invite some female participants and specified their surnames including that of A. B had actually asked A to come along before receiving Nakai's SMS but she rejected this with the reason that her throat was not well.

The BBQ gathering (31 May 2023)

• On 28 May 2023, Nakai sent SMS messages to B where he said that he had originally planned to play golf with 2 male celebrities (later identified in the media as Shofukutei Tsurube and Hiromi) on 31 May 2023. However, this had to be cancelled since the weather forecast for that day wasn't suitable for that. As such, he planned to hold a BBQ gathering instead. The following was their message exchange where Nakai asked B to arrange for some female announcers to come to the BBQ gathering:

    N: It will be boring if it's all guys. Can we get some ladies to come? However, those from outside the     industry wouldn't be good. Can we get any FujiTV female announcers to come?

    B: I'll try to arrange for some female announcers. What time and where are you planning to hold the     BBQ? Is it fine if I get 2 or 3 to come?

    N: I think it will be in the afternoon. There are many female announcers who I don't know so                 someone I know would be good. Hmm...who will be suitable...

    B: I am thinking of asking XXXX (the full name of A).

    N: Yeah, I know her. (laughs) However, getting just one might not be ideal so I trust that you will be       careful about who to ask.

    B: There are limited options considering that it's a Wednesday afternoon but I think those who appear     in morning programmes might be available. I understand what you mean about who to get for the        gathering.

    N: Yes, I'll leave that to you then.

• In response to Nakai's request, B asked A, another CX female announcer T and another female staff member to go to the BBQ from 2pm. B himself also adjusted his work schedule in order to attend this event.
• Nakai informed B that the venue of the BBQ was going to be at an apartment in Tokyo which he used "like a guest room". B himself had been to the place on multiple occasions in the past. A was informed that the venue was not Nakai's residence but rather a place where he used to host gatherings and events like wrap-up parties.
• The party was supposed to begin between 2.30pm and 3pm on 31 May.
• B arranged to meet the 3 female participants at a train station near the apartment at 2pm but announcer T was late. As such, B, A and the female staff member went to the apartment first by taxi. 
• During the journey, B told A that this gathering will be "beneficial" to her career. When the female staff member asked what she should do during the event, B told her to do things such as washing the dishes and serving the others at the party.
• The BBQ gathering's participants included Nakai, the two male celebrities, the 4 participants from CX and 2 male employees from TBS supposedly invited by Nakai.
• The apartment used as the venue had bedrooms, a living room, kitchen and an outdoor terrace.
• After having some light refreshments in the living room, the group headed to the terrace for the BBQ and later headed back indoors when it got dark.
• The 2 TBS employees admitted that they attended the event as ascertained during their company's internal investigation on 21 Feb 2025.
• According to the participants' statements, the two celebrities, the TBS staff members, B, T and the female staff member spent time chatting, eating and drinking at the terrace.
• On the other hand, Nakai was mainly in the kitchen preparing the food while A was helping him there with washing the dishes and serving the food. Both of them did not take part much in what was going on at the terrace.
• While some people said that there were no actions or words of a sexual nature at the event, there were also some who said otherwise.
• The event ended around 8pm and the 2 male celebrities returned home at that time. (This matched what Hiromi mentioned on TV when the media reports about their attendance at the party came out.)
• After cleaning up, Nakai said that he was hungry and invited those present to join him for sushi. However, T and the female staff member said that they had work either after the gathering or the next morning so they rejected the offer. As such, Nakai, A and B headed to a sushi restaurant.

 

The sushi restaurant gathering (31 May 2023)

• Nakai, B and A were seated at a table for 4 in the restaurant's dining hall instead of heading into a private room.
• During the 1-hr or so meal, B joked that A and Nakai should "go ahead and date". However, A rejected this suggestion immediately on the spot and said that this was impossible. With regard to this, B said that he didn't remember ever saying such a thing to Nakai and A but acknowledged the possibility of it having happened when he was interviewed by the committee.
• As Nakai had paid for the BBQ, B paid the bill at the sushi restaurant which came up to JPY 15,235. Some days later, B filed this amount as an entertainment expense for the "discussion of a programme" to CX for reimbursement.
• Nakai asked to exchange mobile phone numbers with A who went ahead with this because "he was around the same age as her parents, she respected his work as a host and trusted him as a senior in the TV industry". B was not involved in this exchange between them.
• After the meal, the three of them went their separate ways and headed home respectively.
• B testified during the committee's hearing that he did not have the impression that Nakai or A had romantic feelings for each other. He had also never heard of Nakai expressing interest in A as a romantic partner. The three of them also did not make any subsequent arrangements to meet up after the meal at the sushi restaurant.
• A sent a LINE message to B and SMS to Nakai to thank them for the BBQ and sushi meal.

 

The day of the incident (2 June 2023)

• 2 days after the above-mentioned BBQ, Nakai sent a SMS to A at 12.11pm to ask if she was available to meet for dinner that night.
• A wasn't resistant to the idea of meeting Nakai for a meal since they worked together thus she replied that she would be available after she finished work in Roppongi at 7pm. As A had always met Nakai for meals with B and other production staff members to date, she automatically assumed that this particular meal gathering would be the same as before i.e. in a group setting.
• In response, Nakai said that he would contact her again after gathering other people to come along for dinner with them.
• However, Nakai subsequently sent multiple messages to A from 5.46pm that he was unable to find other people to join them due to the heavy downpour. Although he was apprehensive about them being on their own, he still wanted to meet up with A for a meal. He then suggested that he would try to find a place which was private enough for them to meet comfortably despite expressing that it might be challenging to do so at short notice.
• In contrary to what Nakai said, it was discovered during the committee's hearing that Nakai had never contacted anyone else for this meal gathering nor called any restaurant to book a place for dinner.
• By 7.14pm, Nakai sent messages to A again and said that he couldn't find anyone else to join them. However, since they already made plans earlier, he said that they should still go ahead on their own. It was then when Nakai said that he didn't know many restaurants to begin with and suggested eating at the apartment where the BBQ gathering was previously held at.
• Even though A was reluctant to go ahead with the dinner, she had already revealed to Nakai earlier that day about how she was actually free that evening. Her position at work also made it difficult for her to say no to him at this juncture. Especially since she always saw how B and other directors were at Nakai's beck and call, she was worried about how her rejection would affect her career if Nakai complained to B about her. As such, even if she didn't want to meet Nakai by this point, she had no choice but to agree to meet him for dinner. 
• Despite so, A testified to the committee that her reply in the affirmative only meant that she would meet him at the apartment for dinner and nothing beyond that.

- Owing to the confidentiality clause between Nakai and A in their settlement agreement and concerns over privacy, the committee had asked both parties through their lawyers if they were willing to lift the restrictions and talk about what happened on that night during the hearings. This was to facilitate the investigation by the committee.

• A agreed to this request but Nakai refused to answer anything that fell within the confidentiality agreement. 
• In the end, what was determined to be within this scope was what happened from the time A entered Nakai's apartment to when she left on the night of 2 June 2023. 
• Both parties would answer questions by the committee about anything outside this scope.
• Even though there was this restriction imposed on Nakai and A, the committee was still able to piece together what happened through hearings with other parties in CX. 
• This allowed the committee to conclude that A had indeed been a victim of sexual violence inflicted by Nakai during the time when she was in his apartment on 2 June 2023. 
• In the investigation report, the definition of sexual violence according to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) "World Report on Violence and Health" in 2022 is as such: "any sexual act, attempt to obtain a sexual act, unwanted sexual comments or advances, or acts to traffic, or otherwise directed, against a person’s sexuality using coercion, by any person regardless of their relationship to the victim, in any setting, including but not limited to home and work. Sexual violence includes rape, defined as physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration – even if slight – of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object."

Preview of "Dear My Baby ~ Watashi ga anata wo shihaisuru made ~" - Spring 2025

Title: Dear My Baby ~ Watashi ga anata wo shihaisuru made ~ / ディアマイベイビー～私があなたを支配するまで～

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 4 April 2025

Timeslot: Fridays at 12.12am

Broadcast by: TV Tokyo

Original manga by: MANGAmuse, TV Tokyo & Mita Rihoko

Opening theme song: "Suki, kirai" by Phantom Siita

Ending theme song: "Maria" by Abe Mao

Cast: Matsushita Yuki, Nomura Kota, Nakamura Yurika, Nagatsuma Reo, Igita Natsuha, Sakura Mayumi, Iwaya Kenji & Yamaguchi Sayaka

Preview of "Kanojo ga sore mo ai to yobunara" - Spring 2025

Title: Kanojo ga sore mo ai to yobunara / 彼女がそれも愛と呼ぶなら

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 3 April 2025

Timeslot: Thursdays at 11.59pm

Broadcast by: YTV

Original novel by: Ichiki Kei

Theme Song: "Espresso" by Sabrina Carpenter

Cast: Kuriyama Chiaki, Ito Kentaro, Senga Kento, Maruyama Tomomi, Komiyama Rina, Tokunaga Eri, Shukugawa Atomu, Namiki Ayaka, Fuchikami Yasushi, Kurosawa Asuka, Takeno Sena & Nakamura Riho

Third-party Investigation Committee's Report on the Nakai Masahiro sexual violence case & FujiTV's role in it - Part 1: The Committee

The third-party investigation committee tasked with looking into the Nakai Masahiro sexual assault case and FujiTV's handling of the issue released its report during a press conference on 31 March 2025. The reports come in two formats i.e. the full version (291 pages) and the summary (58 pages). There is also an appendix which contains the results from the 2 surveys conducted with FujiTV employees and executives.

Due to the amount of information and extensive media coverage on this topic, I will be only translating and writing about highlights and key information derived from the reports in a series of posts. If you are interested in reading the reports, they can accessed via the links provided above.

While there are also documents about FujiTV's plans to revamp itself in view of what happened and what was pointed out by the committee, I will not be covering these. Frankly speaking, such "promises" ring hollow for now unless concrete and tangible changes are made and the effects can only be seen in time to come. As such, I feel that it is meaningless to talk about these at the moment.

This case may have happened in FujiTV but that's not to say other TV stations and companies may not have similar issues. Given the gravity of the case and the subsequent mishandling of the matter that led to the exodus of sponsors and the adverse impact it had on various FujiTV drama productions, this is why I am spending so much time and effort on covering this. Hopefully, these posts help you to understand what had happened and the lingering effects it will have on subsequent FujiTV dramas and possibly productions from other TV stations as well since it looks likely that things would not be the same for FujiTV at least for the time being.

To be honest, it is sickening to read the full story of what happened. Although Bunshun and other media outlets had already given a more-or-less clear account of the issue (while not verified in some aspects and some parts did sound like rumours and speculation), seeing the strongly-worded report by the committee which did not hold back on its criticism of Nakai, the parties who were involved and FujiTV as a company was indeed surprising and refreshing to say the least. I applaud the committee for its extensive investigation completed in a matter of just two months or so and hope that their work will indeed bring some much-needed vindication and justice for Announcer A in Nakai's case who kept getting criticised for "accepting the settlement money" even though the circumstances leading to that were unclear and other employees who had suffered similar harassment from other people in positions of power. Whether criminal proceedings will take place and whether the guilty parties involved will get punished in one way or another - that's still too early to tell though.

While A's identity was somewhat masked so far until the report's release, it has become very evident who A is given the clear indicators given about her identity. Despite so, I will continue using A to refer to her which is in line with the investigation committee's reports.

Due to the number of parties involved, the committee cited the positions held by the parties back then in brackets and used alphabets to refer to them for the sake of clarity. Note that the alphabets used do not correspond to the initials of these people - just in case the public mistakes this to be clues leading to their real identities and start a witch-hunt. Efforts were made by the committee to avoid mentioning specific names and key indicators of one's identity in most scenarios except for those who were already reported and named in the media for their involvement in this case and were deemed to have the responsibility to answer for their roles in this case.

There is another version of this report which indicates the full names of all parties which is not available for public circulation. This was due to concerns about the leak of personal data and confidential corporate information about CX and FMH.

In Part 1, let's find out more about the committee and how they conducted this investigation:

- At an extraordinary board of directors meeting of FMH held on 23 January 2025, the establishment of the third party investigation committee was decided. The aim of the committee was to provide an independent and unbiased assessment of the Nakai case and FujiTV's alleged involvement in the matter, analyze the causes and come up with suggestions of preventive measures. In particular, these 6 points needed to be addressed:

1. Whether CX and FMH were involved in the case
2. Whether there were similar instances like the case in question
3. The process from when CX and FMH came to be aware of the case and its handling of the matter
4. Measures of internal controls, corporate governance and human rights and their effectiveness
5. Identification of problems, root causes and advice on preventive measures
6. Other matters as identified by the committee

- The committee compromised of 3 leading members who were all lawyers and the chairman Takeuchi Akira is also a certified fraud examiner. The investigation was conducted by 18 lawyers who were supervised by another 5 lawyers. The committee also enlisted the help of 3 CX & FMH employees to facilitate the investigation and ensured that there were information firewalls between them and the executives of both companies as stated in the confidentiality agreements signed with them.

- A total of 16 committee meetings were held in the period from 23 January to 30 March 2025.

- The scope of the investigation was set for the period between 1 April 2016 and 26 March 2025. The reason why 1 April 2016 was set as the cut-off date was that CX and FMH had started using their current information management system since then and obtaining/analyzing data prior to this was deemed to be challenging and likely lower in relevance to the current case in question.

- 222 people including those listed in the table above, executives deemed to be relevant to this investigation as well as those who had already left CX and FMH were interviewed over 294 sessions during the investigation period. There were also 2 surveys conducted on the employees and other interested parties along with the establishment of a designated hotline for people to provide information.

- The committee engaged digital forensics company foxcale to ensure the security of the digital data collected and analyze it. Details of their investigation can be found on pages 287 to 291.

• A portion of the data from Microsoft Outlook and Teams were downloaded by CX and FMH through Microsoft Purview and passed on to foxcale.
• Data automatically saved and synced to One Drive through electronic devices issued by CX and FMH were also secured for the purpose of analysis.
• There was evidence pointing to the partial deletion of digital data deliberately by some of those who were investigated. In the report quoted by the media, Nakai had used mainly SMS as a communication tool while those in CX and FMH had used LINE and Microsoft Teams for external and internal communications. 
• While the foxcale team managed to recover most of the deleted SMS and LINE data, there was unfortunately a portion which couldn't be read. It was determined that 437 SMS items, 86 LINE chat items and 1,427 Microsoft Teams chat items were deleted on purpose. Of the individuals who had done this, B was singled out for having deleted 325 communication data items between him, another talent U, Nakai and Lawyer K between 9 January and 1 February 2025. As such, these actions strongly suggested that there was an intention to hide the facts of the case from this investigation.

Preview of "Shiawase wa tabete nete mate" - Spring 2025

Title: Shiawase wa tabete nete mate / しあわせは食べて寝て待て

Official website: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 1 April 2025

Timeslot: Tuesdays at 10pm

Broadcast by: NHK

Total number of episodes: 9

Original manga by: Mizunagi Tori

Cast: Sakurai Yuki, Miyazawa Hio, Kaga Mariko, Fukushi Seiji, Tabata Tomoko, Nakayama Yuuto, Okuyama Aoi, Kitano Kii, Nishiyama Jun, Doi Shiori, Nakayama Hinano & Asaka Mayumi

Preview of "Tokyo Holiday" - Spring 2025

Title: Tokyo Holiday / トウキョウホリディ

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 3 April 2025

Timeslot: Thursdays at 12.30am

Broadcast by: TV Tokyo

Insert Song: "Kanariya" by Sawamura Kirari

Cast: Kanawut Traipipattanapong, Takimoto Miori, Hayama Shono, Okamoto Natsumi, Paolo, Izuka Kenta, Murakawa Eri, Suwa Taro & Kazama Morio

Preview of "Parallel Fuufu Shinda "boku to tsuma" no shinjitsu - Spring 2025

Title: Parallel Fuufu Shinda "boku to tsuma" no shinjitsu / パラレル夫婦　死んだ“僕と妻”の真実

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 1 April 2025

Timeslot: Tuesdays at 11pm

Broadcast by: Kansai TV

Cast: Inoo Kei, Ihara Rikka, Matsukura Kaito, Nomura Kouta, Saito Nagisa, Kizu Takumi, Kyon, Nozoe Yoshihiro, Minamino Yoko & Yashima Norito

Highlights from TBS DRAMA COLLECTION 2025 Spring

The TBS DRAMA COLLECTION 2025 Spring event was held on 29 March 2025 which was streamed online and featured key cast members from the three upcoming dramas starting in April 2025.

Team "Taigan no kaji" (Colour theme: Pink & White) - Tabe Mikako, Eguchi Noriko, Dean Fujioka & Ichinose Wataru

Team "Ignite" (Colour Theme: Red) - Mamiya Shotaro, Nakamura Tooru, Kamishiraishi Moka & Miyama Ryoki

Team "Caster" (Colour Theme: Black) - Abe Hiroshi, Nagano Mei, Michieda Shunsuke & Okabe Takashi

There was a Q & A session where the cast members were asked 2 questions and if all 12 of their answers matched, they would get a luxurious fruit gift set sent to their filming studios. Here are the answers to the questions asked.

On the first day of filming, do you:

A - approach others proactively to talk?

B - wait for others to come and talk to you?

A- Eguchi Noriko, Ichinose Wataru, Abe Hiroshi, Michieda Shunsuke, Nagano Mei, Mamiya Shotaro, Kamishiraishi Moka, Nakamura Tooru and Miyama Ryoki (The "IGNITE" team chose the same answer)

B - Tabe Mikako, Dean Fujioka and Okabe Takashi 

What type of clothes will you wear to the filming location?

A - Comfort is the most important so anything which you can easily change out of

B - Being fashionable is the most important so you will put in effort to choose something nice and presentable

A - Eguchi Noriko, Ichinose Wataru, Dean Fujioka, Tabe Mikako, Okabe Takashi, Abe Hiroshi, Nagano Mei, Michieda Shunsuke, Kamishiraishi Moka, Mamiya Shotaro and Miyama Ryoki (The "Taigan no Kaji" team chose the same answer)

B - Nakamura Tooru (Actually, Michieda chose B at first because he saw the options wrongly so he changed his answer to A in the end. As for Nakamura, he said that since he drives to the filming location on his own most of the time, he makes sure that he isn't dressed too shabbily in case he needs to go shopping for things and people see him but doesn't go to the extent of being fashionable.)

Unfortunately, they did not manage to give the same answers until the end.

Towards the end of the event, when Ichinose was asked to perform a leg split in response to a question about their routines on the filming set, he accidentally tore his pants. He then had to leave the stage for a short while and came back with a black shirt covering his pants as he made his exit when the event wrapped up.

Quick Review #110: Kujaku no dansu, dare ga mita? - Winter 2025

Title: Kujaku no dansu, dare ga mita? / クジャクのダンス、誰が見た？

Rating: 2 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who are fans of the cast and don't mind watching a frustratingly slow and illogical suspense-mystery

* Potential spoilers ahead!

* Disclaimer: I have not read the original manga

Liked:

- I admit that my primary motivation for watching this was Matsuyama Kenichi and as expected, I felt that he did a decent job as Matsukaze. Surprisingly, I enjoyed his interaction with Hirose Suzu as their characters developed a comradeship which somehow evolved to being that of a father-and-daughter dynamic with some funny and heartwarming moments.

- The part when the Endo father-and-son pair were reunited after 22 years was so bittersweet but such a joy to watch because of Sakou Yoshi and Narita Ryo's acting. I also liked their interaction with Kamii (Isomura Hayato) who was a key driver of their hard-to-come-by reunion.

Disliked: 

- I certainly did not expect to give such a low score to this drama because it did start off pretty promisingly - at least up to Ep 2. However, things spiraled downwards really quickly as the subsequent episodes felt like teasers with some miserable bread crumbs dropped along the way but nothing major or significant ever happened. This was further aggravated because of the fact that I was watching this one episode at a time and had to wait an entire week for each new release. If not for the fact that I really wanted to find out what was the truth and for the sake of watching Matsuyama, I would have dropped this around Ep 5 or 6. The pace then picked up considerably, in fact it felt like information overload in Ep 9. And yet, the ending was so underwhelming. How boring to learn the truth in this manner! What was even more damning was that there were so many questions which I felt were not properly addressed or the explanation felt unconvincing. This may have to do with the fact that the manga had not been completed until recently. 

Just to name a number of them:

• Why on earth and how did Haruo even get started to re-investigate the old case and arrive at his conclusion that Kyoko was involved? In order to live as a father with pride and not lie to Komugi anymore?
• The Hayashikawa family murders - even though this case was a key event that set a lot of things going wrongly, what and how it happened felt like an afterthought from how the truth was presented in the last episode.
• Same thing goes for Matsukaze's father Kuze - was that all to it? Nothing to do with the family murders?
• Why did Endo Tomoya not reveal that he was called to go to the scene of the arson when he was arrested? And why did he do that anyway?
• Why did Haruo move the baby to the second floor and hide this fact from his colleagues? The action itself wasn't bad or wrong so I fail to understand why.
• Endo Rikiro could hear the baby's cries from outside the house but didn't hear the commotion between the Hayashikawa couple and Kyoko? Seriously?
• How on earth did Akazawa know nothing about Kyoko's secret life? She set up a company, probably put her baby son in childcare, became pregnant with another man's child and disappeared for a while to give birth! By the time she brought the baby Uta to the Hayashikawa residence, that was 6 months after her birth. That means she must have been living apart from Akazawa for at least a year or so. Wouldn't Akazawa have attempted to see his son during that period and simply let her do what she wanted? And if she was still legally married to Akazawa, what about the birth registration of Uta?
• I didn't quite get how Haruo managed to adopt Uta who was in a welfare home before she was about to be adopted by her money-crazy uncle. If there was a family member or relative, I struggle to understand how Haruo could have adopted Uta legally even with the forged birth papers because he was effectively a stranger. And wouldn't the fact that he was an interested party i.e. one of the investigators of the case make his adoption act seem a bit questionable? The police had no idea on the whereabouts of Uta who was the survivor of such a serious crime?
• Where and how did Kyoko and the lawyer Narukawa link up? Did I miss something?
• What was the reason for that letter Haruo left for Komugi? He foresaw that he was going to be killed for re-investigating the old case and wanted Komugi to expose her birth mother? Seriously?

In view of the above, unless you are going to watch when all the episodes have been released and don't mind the suspense being so half-baked, I would really suggest that you steer clear of this drama.

- Given that there was such a star-studded cast, I felt that the story did not allow them to shine as much as they could. It felt like a total waste of talent other than making everyone look suspicious up to Ep 8 but the ending was such a letdown. What was all that hoo-ha about if there wasn't really a mastermind or big baddie at the end of this journey?

- Nowadays, many dramas do not have a separate credits roll and simply integrate that into the ending scenes of an episode. The problem with doing this with this drama's theme song playing in the background was that the volume was not adjusted properly and often interfered with the scenes when characters were still speaking. The part when the singer was hitting the high-pitched notes simply was jarring to the ears. This really got into the way when viewing the episodes and inevitably caused me to be quite annoyed. That was a pity though because I do like the theme song itself but not when it prevented me from hearing what the characters were saying.

Preview of "Jofuu ~ Josei ni XXXX tte hitsuyou desuka? ~" - Spring 2025

Title: Jofuu ~ Josei ni XXXX tte hitsuyou desuka? ~ / ジョフウ　～女性に××××って必要ですか？～

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 1 April 2025

Timeslot: Tuesdays at 12.30am

Broadcast by: TV Tokyo

Original manga by: Yachinatsu

Ending theme songs: "Kimi no tokomade" by MA55IVE THE RAMPAGE  / "Shinkiro" by Hakane

Cast: Yamazaki Hirona, Yanagi Yurina, Kusumi Koharu, Yui Ryoko, Inoue Yuuta, Beppu Yuki, Kasaya Akira, Shirato Tatsuya, Matsumoto Daiki, Fujibayashi Yasunari, Sekoguchi Ryo, Shibue Jouji & Yamazaki Shigenori

Quick Review #109: Yutori desuga nani ka - Spring 2016

Title: Yutori desuga nani ka / ゆとりですがなにか

Rating: 8.5 / 10

Recommended for: 

Those who are in the mood for a nice blend of light-hearted humour and serious life issues featuring great acting and lovable characters and/or are fans of the cast

Liked:

- While the story featured three guys who went through education in the yutori era, it was actually easy to empathise with their experiences and struggles because these are actually common themes across generations. For example, when we were younger, our predecessors probably also saw us being self-entitled and our behaviours incomprehensible to them. When it was our turn to be the seniors, we may have also felt the same way towards the later generations which came after us. As such, seeing how the yutori generation felt blamed and wronged by assumptions made about them and their struggles in life, it was actually more relatable and engaging to watch than I initially expected. Although some of the issues featured were a bit heavy, the light-hearted touch to projecting these topics made this drama a lot more palatable while not sacrificing the seriousness angle.

- The acting from the cast was definitely top-notch with the three male leads delivering such brilliant performances. I especially liked the trio's chemistry as their "friendship" developed due to odd circumstances and it really came across that they had a close relationship with one another. While there may have been less than desirable traits about these characters, you would find it hard to dislike them and I would dare say, they were so endearing and adorable to watch onscreen.

The pairings with the ladies in their lives were also very interesting. In particular, Okada Masaki and Ando Sakura were really good as an on-and-off couple and the wedding scene towards the end was such a classic. Seeing Mikami-sensei (Matsuzaka Toori) and Koreeda-sensei (Yoshioka Riho) in a romantic entanglement as Yamaji and Etsuko in an entirely different universe was so funny. Yagira Yuuya's wife played by Eren who rattled off criticism and harsh words so naturally in that fashion also provided much comedic relief and her husband who cowered in front of her despite acting tough outside - that was so hillarious.

Even the supporting characters such as Yoshida Kotaro did their part to elevate the story so there wasn't really any redundant or boring character.

Disliked: 

- There were some junctures which I felt that the humour dragged on a bit longer than desired (at least to me) so I thought that these could have been cut out to make the story flow a bit more smoothly. 

- The beginning of the story was a bit abrupt and out of the blue so it took me a while to immerse myself into the developments as I was a bit bewildered by the direction. I would have preferred a more "proper" start to introduce the characters rather than be thrown into the deep end from the start and feel disoriented.

Preview of "Sado off-road" (Drama SP)

Title: Sado off-road / サ道 off-road

Official website: here

Official Facebook: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Date: 26 March 2025 at 2pm

Broadcast by: TV Tokyo

Original manga by: Tanaka Katsuki

Cast: Harada Taizo & Miyake Hiroki

Preview of "Yabusaka dewa gozaimasen" - Spring 2025

Title: Yabusaka dewa gozaimasen / やぶさかではございません

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official TikTok: here

Official X: here

O.A. Start Date: 2 April 2025

Timeslot: Wednesdays at 12.30am

Broadcast by: TV Tokyo

Original manga by: Marita

Opening theme song: "Tick-Tack" by DXTEEN

Ending theme song: "Koi no guidebook" by Karen na Ivory

Cast: Matsumura Sayuri, Komagine Kiita, Hama Shogo, Tabata Shima, Katayama Moemi, Ando Sei, Sakurai Atsuko & Tonesaku Toshihide