- The chief of FujiTV's Compliance Promotion Office spoke out during the staff briefing on 23 Jan 2025 and revealed that he first heard of the incident only when reporters came to interview him in Dec last year. He questioned the top management as to why this matter was left unresolved for so long, who had made the decision to handle the issue in this manner and why he was never consulted on this before the scandal blew up in the public domain.
- At the beginning of the staff briefing, it was specifically stated that filming and audio recording of the session were not allowed. However, Gendai Business received an audio recording of the entire session from an employee who was furious about FujiTV's handling of the matter.
- While it was pointed out that there were people who felt that Nakai was the culprit and should bear the most responsibility for creating this problem, FujiTV was also seen to be in the wrong for concealing such an important issue and had fatal flaws in its compliance measures and governance structure.
- During the session, there were repeated calls for the chairman and president to step down. There was also criticism directed towards Hieda Hisashi for his domination of power in the company for a very long time and building a management culture in FujiTV where everyone was fearful of him and couldn't say or do things which he didn't like. When pressed by the employees on whether the management still wanted to stay on in this situation, the latter did not give a definite answer. Upon seeing this, an employee asked if they will only leave the management team when FujiTV ends up with no CMs at all and this scenario is likely to happen as early as by this very weekend. One employee was in tears and pointed out frankly that Hieda who did not even attend the briefing, is precisely the root cause of what led to the concealment of Nakai's sexual assault incident by FujiTV. Even after hearing these, the management continued to give ambiguous answers about their future in the company and did not even mention Hieda.
- At the mention of the establishment of a third party investigation committee, a reforms committee and a revitalization committee to deal with the aftermath of this issue, employees were angry about how these moves were superficial at best since there was nothing concrete planned and disclosed to the staff. An employee in his/her 50s lashed out at this by questioning the management as to what kind of image they were trying to create with these committees. Besides, there is no guarantee that advertisers and sponsors will return to FujiTV even after the third party investigation committee releases its findings by end Mar 2025. The same employee then asked for the resignation of the entire board of directors which is made up mainly of older people and to replace all of them with employees in their 40s who should lead the way for the sake of FujiTV's future. If the company does not show its resolve in changing its ways, this issue will become a matter of life and death for the employees and their families. Rather than think about how to revitalize the company or pretend that the company has changed, solving the current problem on hand is more important. This employee's comments were met with loud applause from the audience.
- There was also the view that Nakai announcing his retirement effectively meant that FujiTV was left to fend for itself in the scandal.
- Wakasa Masaru, a lawyer who used to be the deputy director of Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office's Special Investigation Department, commented during the 24 Jan 2025 broadcast of TBS' "Hiruobi" that it was surprising to see some footage from the staff briefing appearing on TBS even though the session was supposedly restricted to FujiTV employees only. He pointed that this was most likely due to FujiTV employees leaking the footage to external parties even though this could have contained content that would be potentially damaging to the company. However, this was probably also a show of the staff's sense of crisis, distrust of their management and their hope that other TV stations will take a good look at themselves as well to weed out similar problems.
- FujiTV will not be charging its advertisers which have pulled out their ads and replaced them with AC Japan ones for Jan 2025. In addition, it had also informed them that from Feb 2025 onwards, they are free to proceed with cancellations. Mainichi Shimbun has checked with several of these advertisers which confirmed that they were indeed notified of this.
- However, given that the findings report from FujiTV's investigation committee is expected to be ready by the end of Mar 2025, advertisers will no doubt be stuck in limbo for now since they won't be able to make decisions on whether to continue or sign new contracts for the period starting from Apr 2025. Traditionally, negotiations for such contracts are held in Jan for the quarter beginning Apr.
- Up till 20 January, it was reported that 75 companies had pulled out their ads. With this current announcement, FujiTV's ad revenue looks set to be hit badly. In the fiscal year ended Mar 2024, the company achieved ad revenue totaling JPY 147.3 billion i.e. an average of about JPY 12.2 billion per month.
- Affiliated local TV stations in the same media group have also been hit with ad cancellations from advertisers such as supermarket chain York-Benimaru. The affected ones include Sendai Housou (Miyagi), Sakuranbo TV (Yamagata) and Fukushima TV (Fukushima).
- Various TV stations nationwide have released statements about their stances with regard to this incident.
- Hokkaido Bunka Housou said on 23 Jan that although it is part of the same network as FujiTV, they are a separate corporate entity and local TV station which has been contributing to their local region through its independent programming and production. It prides itself in abiding by compliance rules and its staff have always worked hard to uphold moral standards in a responsible manner. In order to continue earning the trust of its viewers, it had conducted its own investigation which did not uncover any compliance issues.
- TV Shizuoka also expressed its stance of no tolerance for violation of human rights and harassment on 23 Jan. It said that it had always abided by its ethical behaviour guidelines. Soon after the FujiTV issue came to light, it had also conducted an anonymous internal survey with its staff and will continue efforts to further improve working conditions.
- The spillover effects of the incident have spread to FujiTV's drama production side.
- Some talent agency personnel interviewed by the media revealed that there have been quite a number of notifications from FujiTV to change the filming locations which coincide with reports that it has become increasingly difficult to secure permissions for filming. In particular, locations involving or related to government agencies have almost become a no-go for FujiTV's productions. In order to deal with the situation, more scenes have to be shot in the studios instead but this move will no doubt affect the production quality as well. Bookings for FujiTV's Wangan Studios are already full. Ironically though, the move isn't that bad for the actors and their on-site managers since this means that they won't have to waste time travelling to various filming locations.
- Katori Shingo's drama "Nipponichi no saitei otoko" had to cancel a filming supposed to take place at Yurakucho in downtown Tokyo during mid Jan. In the end, the filming was done in Machida, a suburb of Tokyo, at the very last minute. Due to the fact that the filming involved extras, the location change turned out to be a nightmare for the crew.
- During the employee briefing, a representative from the drama production department revealed the current dire situation facing the drama "119 Emergency Call". This drama is a tie-up with Yokohama City Fire Department which had allowed their name to be featured, lent their uniforms and even allowed the use of some facilities in Yokohama City which are typically not opened for filming. However, due to the scandal, the mayor of Yokohama City said in a press conference on the day before the employee briefing that they have no choice but to review their collaboration with FujiTV depending on how the situation develops. As it is, there have been calls made to the fire department's general hotline to complain about their collaboration with FujiTV. If the situation worsens or the complaint calls spill over to the 119 emergency hotline, it is very likely that the collaboration will be terminated which means that filming cannot continue and they will not be able to air the drama till the end. However, the president said that he didn't have an answer or solution to this at the moment and simply apologised for the trouble the staff were put through.
- Staff working on programmes which involve interviewing the public on the streets are said to be having a hard time too. They have had to face rejection from interviewees as soon as the latter find out that the staff are from FujiTV so this reflects the poor public perception of the TV station at the moment.
- The release of a compilation of short novels written by 6 FujiTV announcers has been postponed. The book which is supposed to be published on 3 Mar 2025, had been promoted since Dec 2024 but its preorder page was taken down. Among the 6 announcers who wrote the book, Sasaki Kyoko was named in Bunshun's article as one of the executives who had received X-san's report of what happened but suspected not to have taken adequate action. While the publisher did not go into details on why the book's release was postponed, Sasaki's suspected involvement in the incident was suggested as a potential factor especially as the scandal involving FujiTV grew bigger.
- As pointed out by Sports Hochi, during the 100-min or so first press conference by FujiTV to a limited group of media representatives, the president refused to answer or divulge any information for a good 30 times. This was said to be one of the key reasons leading to the poor reception of that press conference and subjecting FujiTV to further criticism and ridicule both online and offline.
- Even national papers which are traditionally quite subdued in their tones, were openly harsh in their criticism of FujiTV. Nikkei Shimbun's commentary on 19 Jan said that trying to protect the victim's privacy was important but being open and honest about the investigation findings was also critical. The press conference on 17 Jan was definitely not open as it was made out to be. Likewise, Asahi Shimbun also said that it was necessary for the president's responsibility in this matter to be ascertained during the investigation or else the cloud of doubt will continue to hang over FujiTV.
- Murakami Seiichiro, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications (TV stations are governed by this ministry under the Broadcasting Act and the Radio Act), pointed out during a press conference after the Cabinet meeting on 21 Jan that it was important for FujiTV to do the investigation as soon as possible and ensure the independence of the investigation committee. He also called upon the management to put in effort to regain and restore trust by sponsors and viewers which was interpreted as a sign of displeasure towards the press conference by FujiTV.
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