- Promoting the understanding of the fire department's work: Through the drama, the public can understand how the fire department's teams work together, how to make 119 emergency calls and the challenges in its inability to dispatch fire engines and ambulances "immediately" during certain situations. In this drama, the command centre officers do not actually go out to save lives but have an important role in "passing on the baton" to those on the ground and are equally pivotal to their other colleagues in the process of saving lives.
- The potential of positive spillover effects to fire departments nationwide: While this drama is set in Yokohama City, the importance of the work handled by the fire department's control centre would be the same anywhere else. As such, in order to convey this and boost understanding of their work, giving up on the collaboration with FujiTV so easily will no doubt be counterproductive to their efforts so far.
- To enhance the public's safety and boost awareness: As featured in the drama, most people who call the emergency hotline would tend to be nervous and in a panic mode thus cannot provide details or comprehensive information to the command centre's officers. This no doubt delays the speed of dispatching appropriate resources to deal with the situation and creates the inability of on-the-ground emergency personnel to handle the matter in the best way possible. This is when useful tips such as how to stay calm, speak succinctly yet being detailed would be of value to those reporting cases to the emergency hotline. In addition, making the public be aware of when to call the hotline such as those who can go to the hospital themselves shouldn't be calling for ambulances or showing how prank calls can waste time of the officers who should be working on the true emergencies are expected to boost safety for themselves and others since nobody would know when they might be the ones who require help one day.
My reviews on Japanese dramas, movies & music as well as anything to do with J-ent. From the ML to the forum and now to the blog version, here's hoping that this space will be a trusted source of information for all J-ent fanatics and a platform where we can come together and share our thoughts. © 2006-2025 Chiaki. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, February 18, 2025
A look at the reasons for Yokohama City Fire Department's decision to continue supporting "119 Emergency Call" behind the scenes
Monday, February 17, 2025
The secrets hidden in the sponsor credits section of TBS Winter 2025 drama "Kujaku no dansu, dare ga mita?"
Behind-the-scenes trivia from TBS Winter 2025 drama "Mikami-sensei"
- According to Iida, a hint was actually dropped to everyone when they started filming the classroom scenes in December.
- A sacoche bag which is the size of their script, was handed out to everyone at that time. On it was an English phrase which is taken from the lyrics of the song.
- During a briefing with cast members, Iida mentioned that this drama was conceptualised after he heard the song "We are" from ONE OK ROCK.
- This led to Okudaira Daiken who plays Kanzaki Takuto, to guess correctly then that the English words on the bag should be song lyrics.
Sunday, February 16, 2025
Quick Review #101: Haretara ii ne (Drama SP)
Saturday, February 15, 2025
Romaji lyrics of "Elf" by Ado - Theme song of TBS Winter 2025 drama "Kujaku no dansu, dare ga mita?"
Friday, February 14, 2025
2025's Top 10 ranking of male celebrities who you want as a boyfriend (Oricon)
- This is the first time that Matsushita Kouhei grabbed the No.1 spot in this ranking. He was No.2 last year.
- This year marks the first time that Meguro Ren entered the top 3 in this ranking. He was No.4 last year.
- Takenouchi Yutaka is the oldest celebrity (54 years old) in this ranking for this year and last year.
- Meguro Ren is the youngest celebrity (27 years old) in this year's ranking. He will turn 28 in 2 days' time.
- Nakamura Tomoya is the only married celebrity in this year's top 10 ranking.
- Yamada Ryosuke and Matsumura Hokuto are tied at No.4 this year.
- Yamada Ryosuke, Matsumura Hokuto, Yokohama Ryuusei, Nakamura Tomoya & Sato Takeru were outside of the top 10 last year.
- Last year's No.1 Ohtani Shohei is not in this year's top 10 probably because he announced his marriage in Feb 2024 and the survey was done in Jan 2024.
- Similarly, Yamada Yuuki who was No.5 last year, did not make it to this year's ranking. He announced his marriage to Nishino Nanase in Mar 2024.
- Yoshizawa Ryo who was No.7 last year, did not make it to this year's top 10. His drunk-trespassing incident late last year probably had a part to play in this.
- Michieda Shunsuke and Nagase Ren who were in last year's ranking, did not appear in this year's top 10 list.
Over-reliance on the unusual? - A look at FujiTV's perceived dependence on dramas featuring characters with special or supernatural powers
Amid the media frenzy surrounding FujiTV's troubles from the Nakai Masahiro incident, this article from FLASH caught my attention for highlighting an interesting observation about their dramas of late.
Apparently, FujiTV has been dishing out quite a number of primetime dramas featuring characters with special or supernatural powers and/or the use of special technology to the extent that there is concern expressed over their over-reliance on this genre and the supposed lack of creativity. In particular, the concentration of such dramas in the Winter 2025 season was highlighted as too coincidental to be true i.e. 3 out of 5 primetime offerings:
- "Aishii ~ Shunkan kioku sousa Hiiragi han ~" - the lead character played by Haru has the "camera eye" ability which allows her to make use of her photographic memory i.e. remember everything she sees to solve cases.
- "119 Emergency Call" - the lead character played by Seino Nana has the ability to remember everything she hears and uses it for her work as a command centre officer in the fire department.
- "Himitsu ~ THE TOP SECRET ~" - a special MRI technology is used to create images of the deceased's brains while they were still alive.
In addition, the previous season i.e. Autumn 2024 featured two dramas of a similar nature:
- "Usotoki Rhetoric" - the lead character played by Matsumoto Honoka has the ability to differentiate lies from the truth based on what people are saying.
- "Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu" - the gods make use of their special powers to solve cases related to strange phenomenon.
In view of these examples, this has led to comments wondering about FujiTV's dependence on this "fantastical or deviating from reality" genre and its tendency to portray women as those who can't get ahead in life unless they have a special power. To be fair though, we should also consider if the dramas are original productions or adaptations from existing material in other formats. In the case of "Himitsu" and "Usotoki Rhetoric", they are adaptations while the others are original stories. As such, this trend may have been due to one or a combination of two factors i.e. deliberately creating originals in similar formats and/or consciously picking original material with such elements.
One reason cited in the article to explain this tendency of FujiTV was said to be the use of directors who have been in the industry for a long time and them relying on tried-and-tested formulas to play safe. For example, the director for "Aishii" is said to have about 30 years' experience since being active from the 1990s. Even with creative input from the younger staff members on the production sets, the overall direction of the work still depends on the directors so the likelihood of duplicated themes and styles is assumed to be higher. In contrast, FLASH quoted the example of TBS' highly-praised Sunday dramas and noted that the directors tend to be different people thus resulting in varying directing styles and a more refreshing slate of content offerings.
Although it does look like FujiTV has a higher concentration of dramas featuring special or supernatural abilities of late, that's not to say that other TV stations are not serving up dramas of a similar nature. Fairly recent examples which I can think of include:
- "Eye Love You" (TBS - Winter 2024) - the lead character can hear people's real thoughts.
- "Gifted" (FujiTV & WOWOW - Summer & Autumn 2023) - A senior high school student who can see whether someone is a murderer and teams up with a police detective to solve cases.
- "Okutou ~ Kanjou sousakan Shinno Akari ~ Season 2" (NTV - Autumn 2024) - A police detective can see the colours of emotions in people and uses this to help her solve cases.
- "Oichi Fushigi gatari" (NHK - Summer 2024) - The lead character in this period drama can see how the deceased looked just by hearing their voices.
- "30-sai made doutei dato mahoutsukai ni narerurashii" (TV Tokyo - Autumn 2020) - A salaryman acquires the ability to read people's thoughts just by touching them when he turns 30 years old.
- "Kishibe Rohan wa ugokanai" (NHK - 2020 onwards) - The lead character has the ability to read people's thoughts and life history through a book
And of course, there are the oldtime classics like the "SPEC" series (TBS), "BORDER" (TV Asahi) or "Psychometrer Eiji" (NTV).
While I think that the argument about the recent concentration of this genre in FujiTV's dramas may be true to a certain extent, to say that the competitors aren't doing it at all is also not entirely correct. However, if such stories can be spread out more evenly across the seasons, it might reduce the perception of over-reliance on super powers in the dramas.
On a personal note, I am not really a fan of stories featuring people with extraordinary powers especially if the story setting doesn't really call for it. For example, the overall settings in "SPEC" and "Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu" do warrant having lots of characters with special powers so I'm generally fine with these. If not, my acceptance of such stories is comparatively higher when we are talking about more "believable" powers such as people's five senses being more sensitive than others or that they are just more observant. That being said, things which border on exaggeration can turn me off.
As for the point regarding how "normal" people or even women cannot get ahead in life without such special powers, I think it reflects how real life is like to a certain extent. You do have to display something different from the rest in order to distinguish yourself from the competition which is especially evident in "Aishii" because of the male-dominated environment which the lead character is in. However, having special powers that seem way too good to be true does reduce how realistic a story comes across and can alienate viewers to a certain extent if it's too far-fetched. How to strike a balance between logic and fiction is not an easy task at all.
In relation to this point about over-reliance on a single genre or story setting in dramas, one other thing which actually annoys me more these days is the overuse of the term "genius". It does seem like in order to make a character more appealing or charismatic, the person has to deviate from the norm by being much smarter than everyone else or achieve things beyond the usual person in the same age group. And every time I see the term "genius-XXX", it gets on my nerves so much because the over-concentration of geniuses in Japanese dramas and movies makes it feel as if ordinary people have become the rarity in dramaland. Especially if the description of how genius-like the person is gets too ridiculous, I tend to avoid such stories from the onset. It makes me wonder - most of us do not encounter that many geniuses in real life at such a high frequency so why does the J-dramaland feel like it's overflowing with so many of them?
Thursday, February 13, 2025
Quick Review #100: Ienai Himitsu Secret (movie)
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
Netflix Japan's key drama series and movies to be released in 2025
Updates and new information from the Nakai Masahiro & FujiTV incident - 12 Feb 2025
- There is increasing worry from the production companies about how the programme budgets will be reduced further or they may end up having no work at all if the situation continues worsening.
- There are no specific measures nor compensation plans communicated from FujiTV to these production companies other than repeated apologies for the inconvenience caused to them.
- Some production companies have started reviewing the amount of manpower allocated to FujiTV programmes in view of the tough working conditions for the time being at least until the third party investigation committee's report is out.
- Some graduating students have also expressed concern about working in the TV industry now and asked the production companies about the current situation but there isn't much that they could share. As such, some students who received job offers have asked to cancel these even though it's already February. Typically, graduates join companies at the start of the financial year in April.
- With regard to having their revenue cut by the TV station, the Free Trade Commission's freelancer protection law and FujiTV's guidelines for partnerships with production companies should prevent huge cuts in principle. However, if the programmes get terminated, it would result in the total loss of income.
- While there is an existing settlement reached between Nakai and X-san, if this arrangement was forced upon the victim by anyone such as FujiTV executives, the settlement would not be valid legally. In such a situation, as long as the victim files a police report, the police can then begin investigations.
- As such, it is important for the chain of events and whether there was consent and intimidation involved to be established during the third party investigations.
- Things that should be done during the investigation include interviewing the parties involved and those related to them including the staff at the hospital where the victim had undergone treatment at. All communications records should be restored. Given the extent of information and effort required, they didn't think that FujiTV's investigation simply based on interviewing the parties involved would be sufficient in establishing the truth and that the police should get involved instead.
- However, if the victim doesn't file a report, the police cannot initiate an investigation on its own initiative.
- A questionnaire from the committee was sent to FujiTV employees on 3 Feb 2025 via email.
- Only employees of FujiTV and its parent company i.e. Fuji Media Holdings received the questionnaire.
- The questionnaire's aim was stated as "to investigate the current problem and identify cases of a similar nature".
- There was also a disclaimer stating that content provided in the questionnaire may be quoted in the findings report prepared by the committee but these responses will be reported anonymously.
- There was a question asking if the employee was ever made to participate in any gathering with cast members, staff from talent agencies, production companies, sponsors, advertising firms etc. at the orders of executives and against their own will.
- There was also another question asking for the identity of the person who gave the orders in relation to the above question.
- However, the questionnaire indicated that it may be difficult to investigate very old incidents so the answers should pertain to incidents that happened after April 2016.
- There will be a second round of questionnaires to be sent out which will focus on investigating the corporate culture of FujiTV.
- However, some have wondered why external production companies and freelancers who work with FujiTV were not included as the recipients of this questionnaire despite them being on the ground and should know the situation better than the TV station's employees especially those who are tasked with managing such external parties and do not get involved in the productions.
- On 10 Feb 2025, the committee announced the set-up of a hotline for external parties to provide information. The collection of responses will be conducted from 10 to 24 Feb and those who were former employees of FujiTV and Fuji Media Holdings or have business dealings with both companies can make use of this hotline.
- It expressed the grave concerns from its member companies about the ongoing situation.
- The impact of having to re-edit completed programmes, cancellations of location shooting arrangements etc. will not only affect the production companies but also spillover to those involved in the photography and editing processes.
- Many ATP members are small-and-medium enterprises so any show or work cancellations can lead to them facing the prospect of immediate bankruptcy.
- It called upon FujiTV to ensure fairness in dealing with and take reasonable steps to compensate the companies it works with as a result of these changes without resorting to blanket and drastic cuts to the budgets.
- The HQ building was designed by the late Tange Kenzo and features two towers i.e. the office and the media towers. Total construction cost was about JPY 135 billion and the move was completed in 1997.
- A key difference between the Odaiba HQ and the former HQ at Kawada-cho in Shinjuku was the office layout. Back then, in order to promote a sense of unity and boost collaboration across different departments, everyone worked together in an open-office concept.
- However, in Odaiba, departments were now segregated into different floors e.g. the programming side is on level 12 while the production side is on level 13. This then restricted communications between the departments and created silos within the organisation.
- According to Nomura Shuya, a lawyer and professor at Chuo University Law School when he appeared on ABC TV's "Oshiete! News Life Seigi no Mikata" on 1 Feb 2025, the new Odaiba HQ building was used an excuse to facilitate efforts in ousting the founding Shikanai family. Back then, in order to dilute the shareholdings of the Shikanais, there was a need to issue more shares but this required a proper justification. As such, the plan to create a huge and new HQ building for the TV station was conceived. When Nippon Housou, the parent company of FujiTV back then, went public and issued more of its own shares, this led to the further weakening of the Shikanais' control of FujiTV and the subsequent monopolisation of power by Hieda.
- According to Dentsu's report of the Japanese advertising market in 2023, total advertisement income for that year was about JPY 7.31 trillion. Although this was higher than the previous year, TV commercials actually decreased by 3.7% to JPY 1.7 trillion. In contrast, Internet commercials jumped by 7.8% to JPY 2.6 trillion.
- From Fuji Media Holdings' financial report for FY 24 (the year ended Mar 2024), while the media contents business accounted for 74.5% of its revenue, its contribution to the operating gains was less than half i.e. 43.4%. However, the city development and tourism business segment contributed the second highest revenue at 22.1% yet accounted for 54% of the operating gains.
- Other TV stations also have their "sidelines" such as NTV's affiliation to Studio Ghibli to strengthen its media business, TBS's tie-up with Yaruki Switch Group which is in the education business and TV Asahi owning multi-purpose halls in Ariake and operating Tokyo Dream Park.
- All of the TV stations also have links to various newspapers because their establishments were made possible after WWII through the expertise and experience of these news publishers. However, the principles of eliminating mass media concentration under the Broadcasting Act prevent the TV stations and newspapers from coming together to become one company. In order to get around this rule, news publishers typically become minority shareholders in TV stations and/or hold shares together with other local companies which are largely led by alumni from such newspapers.
- As such, the current affiliation situation is: Yomiuri Shimbun - NTV, Asahi Shimbun - TV Asahi, Mainichi Shimbun - TBS, Sankei Shimbun - FujiTV and Nikkei Shimbun - TV Tokyo.
- However, as newspapers face a more difficult situation than TV stations nowadays in terms of their operating environments, there is more resistance from the TV stations when alumni from the newspapers are transferred to TV stations to take up executive positions. Their influence on TV stations have also weakened due to developments such as Mainichi Shimbun's bankruptcy in the 70s and having to sell its TBS shares for the sake of making a comeback and Asahi Shimbun having to get TV Asahi to buy its shares due to heritance issues of its shareholders. As such, the tables have turned now and newspaper agencies are sometimes reduced to merely being the "news department" of the media company as seen in Sankei Shimbun's role in Fuji Media Holdings.
- Nevertheless, as newspapers still command a huge influence and hold strong ties with the government and financial sectors, it is still essential for TV stations to provide support to these newspaper publishers since they need the broadcast rights from the government to operate.
- While this has not been officially announced as yet, the Spring 2025 season is said to see a sequel of "Saigo kara nibanme no koi" starring Koizumi Kyoko for the first time in 10 years which is expected to be aired in the Mondays 9pm timeslot. As the story is set in Kamakura City and had gotten support from the city government back then including getting its employees to be extras during the filming, whether the same arrangement can continue for this sequel is questionable as local governments are more reluctant to be working with FujiTV now.
- A reported collaboration with a major airline for the Summer 2025 timeslot is said to be facing difficulties and at risk of being cancelled. However, FujiTV refused to comment on this matter.
- There are also rumours about Suda Masaki refusing to appear in a FujiTV drama (said to be a sequel of "Mystery to iu nakare") and Matsumoto Jun possibly rejecting his lead role in a Summer 2025 drama where he is reportedly playing a police officer. However, the authenticity of these news have not been confirmed as yet.
- "Tousouchuu" which aired its pilot in 2004 and has become a regular fixture of FujiTV, is said to be facing difficulties in securing suitable places for the filming. This hide-and-seek style show features celebrities running away from "hunters dressed in black" within a designated time in order to win prize money and the setting of the game is usually in a large scale commercial facility like theme parks and shopping malls usually on the days when they are closed to the public. It used to be that the filming was done on the streets in places with a lot of human traffic such as Odaiba, Asakusa, Yokohama Chinatown and Ikebukuro. In the past three years, the show has been aired on a seasonal basis and won in the game show category of "Asia Television Awards" in 2009. It has since spawned other versions such as novels, movies and games and its remake rights sold to countries such as the US and China. However, the show also had its fair share of controversies such as the trouble it caused in March 2024 in Tokyo when a male resident found the entrance of his apartment building blocked by the filming crew without the residents' permission. After the resident posted about this on X, FujiTV and the production company's handling of the situation was viewed unfavourably and attracted a lot of criticism. As such, the current situation facing the show may also be partly due to the bad press it got in the past.
- The variety specials in spring are also at risk of being cancelled. Last spring, FujiTV made more than 20 variety SPs and more than 25 for the autumn season. These numbers look set to drop drastically this year.
- Popular anime series "Sazae-san" was left with no sponsors from 2 Feb onwards when the last sponsor i.e. baby-and-children goods maker Nishimatsuya stopped appearing in the credits list. It had announced its decision to pull off the ads on 28 Jan following FujiTV's second press conference on the previous day and its name as the sole remaining sponsor was last seen at the end of the anime broadcast on 26 Jan.
- "FNS 27 Jikan Terebi" which is a regular variety SP during summer, looks unlikely to go ahead. According to Sponichi, although this year's main host is supposed to be members of a popular idol group, insiders revealed that some of the celebrities scheduled to appear have already been informed about the situation since the lack of sponsors has resulted in difficulty to secure funding for the large number of celebrities appearing in this show and multiple location shootings. This show is an annual event since 1987 and was cancelled once before in 2020 due to COVID-19 and replaced with "FNS Love & Music" in 2021 and 2022. It was resurrected in 2023 as a pet project of previous president Minato Koichi.
- As reported by Sports Hochi on 5 Feb 2025, the February and March broadcasts of BS FujiTV's mini programme "Oishii kioku kikasete kudasai" sponsored by Kikkoman will be cancelled. Another programme sponsored by the same company on FujiTV i.e. "Kuishinbo Banzai!" also had its February broadcast cancelled. Kikkoman's ad placement on FujiTV will remain suspended until further notice as it reviews how the situation develops.
- Its decision should not be interpreted as condoning sexual violence and assault. As the facts have not been made known, it did not think that there was reason to attack FujiTV and its employees based on speculation and hearsay. It had decided to go ahead with the CMs because it was convinced by the honest interactions with FujiTV's staff who are trying to face up to the issue and resolve it. As such, this is a decision with the future in mind.
- It refuted allegations of having received entertainment favours from FujiTV and insisted that there was nothing fishy going on between both companies.
Tuesday, February 11, 2025
Preview of "Anpan" - NHK 2025 morning drama
Monday, February 10, 2025
Quick Review #99: Kishibe Rohan wa ugokanai Seasons 1 & 2 - Autumn 2020 & 2021
Sunday, February 09, 2025
Quick Review #98: Umimachi diary (movie)
Saturday, February 08, 2025
Preview of "Hana Noren" (Drama SP)
Friday, February 07, 2025
Updates and new information from the Nakai Masahiro & FujiTV incident - 7 Feb 2025
- In 1999, a cast member of its variety show "Aisuru futari wakareru futari" committed suicide. This led to the discovery that the programme was faked when the police investigated the case. The show initially started off as featuring ordinary couples who had to decide whether to continue with their marriages or get divorced due to issues like infidelity but gradually became one that featured the couples largely headed for the divorce path since this provided more compelling narratives for TV and attracted higher ratings. Since the show started, it had been flooded with comments that the content seemed faked and some programming department employees had even written complaints about it to the management. However, Ohta Tooru, the then-assistant director of the department still decided to continue with the programme that was made by an external company Japan Produce. When the suicide of the female cast member came to light, it was found in her suicide note that the woman was in fact not married to the guy she was featured together with in the show. The programme ended when sponsors threatened to end their collaboration with FujiTV and due to internal feedback that the show had too many issues for it to continue. After the show ended, the production company denied that it had deliberately created fake content and that it had believed that those who appeared in the show were indeed married couples.
- It did not set up a third party investigation committee despite the public outcry when a cast member of "Terrace House" committed suicide in 2020 due to skewed editing that portrayed her in a negative light and subjected her to online bullying.
- FujiTV's ratings and sales are the lowest among the key stations (excluding TV Tokyo) and its bonus is said to be even lower than TV Tokyo's. *Note that some media reports claim that base salaries are comparatively higher though.
- Hieda holds the right to decide on key personnel appointments. The newly appointed president Shimizu Kenji is the 8th person in this post since Hieda left in 2001. All of the presidents were appointed by Hieda.
- Since Hieda became FujiTV's president in 1988, he has also been the one to decide on positions at director-level and above for the past 36 years.
- Due to Hieda holding actual power rather than the president, the environment within the FujiTV has evolved to become that of pandering to Hieda's preferences and going along with his opinions.
- Those who held different views from Hieda were forced out of the organisation. For example, there was S-san who used to be the programming director and seen as a potential president candidate and he had pushed strongly for other media delivery forms such as CS broadcasting. However, Hieda objected to it because he didn't think that there was a future in CS broadcasting nor online/on-demand video viewing. As such, FujiTV was noticeably late to the game when its competitors NTV and TBS already made inroads into this market with Hulu and U-NEXT. In a constantly evolving TV industry, new views and different perspectives are essential to stay ahead of the competition but deviating from Hieda's preferences is said to be a big no-no in FujiTV.
- Hieda is widely viewed to be unlikely to step away from FujiTV voluntarily for two reasons. First of all, the government cannot interfere in the personnel matters of media reporting outlets and can only "recommend" certain actions. Secondly, Hieda has strong connections and influence in the political arena.
- However, pressure from major shareholders might be the key to resolve this situation. As it is, US investment management firm Dalton Investments has already expressed its displeasure about the Hieda management structure since late last year when the scandal first broke. It owns about 7% of FujiTV's parent company i.e. Fuji Media Holdings.
- Bunka Housou which owns 3%, may be part of the Sankei Group but is seen as pursuing its own independent path and its president had openly called for swift investigations into FujiTV. Toho which owns 8% and NTT DoCoMo which owns 3%, are also unlikely to sit around and see further damage to its shareholder value if the scandal goes on for a long time.
- Many employees have been putting in effort to identify problem areas and come up with measures to resolve them over the years. As such, it is not true that they have not been doing their best but the reality is, things are simply not looking up for the TV station as seen from the hardly improving ratings and financial performance.
- FujiTV's corporate culture emphasizes a lot on the family atmosphere especially when the cast and staff members buily a strong comradeship bond over the long years that they worked together. For example, some staff members had worked with SMAP way back from 1992 when their first variety show on FujiTV aired in the late night slot until it went through a few renewals and got upgraded to become the primetime ratings hit "SMAPxSMAP" in 1996 before it ended its run in 2016.
- However, this emphasis on the family atmosphere has also attracted cynicism and criticism such as the unusual move of allowing parents to attend the joining ceremony for new hires. As celebrities, the rich and the famous were often spotted in the audience, this led to suspicion over their offspring getting jobs in FujiTV through their parents' or family's connections. Celebrities who appeared in FujiTV's shows regularly were also invited to be surprise guests. When footage of such events were shown on TV, it attracted complaints from viewers about the abuse of public broadcasting to showcase and emphasize the so-called family bonds and working environment in the TV station.
- When FujiTV was attacked for being pro-Korea content and anti-Japan back in 2011 for its significantly higher proportion of Korean shows in its lineup, there were protests that happened outside its Odaiba headquarters on top of the criticism in the media and online. Despite so, the management back then did not take this seriously so didn't bother to address these complaints.
- To begin with, Korean dramas were relatively cheaper to purchase at that time as compared to producing Japanese dramas from scratch and they also got pretty high ratings. As such, this was a profitable area for FujiTV which they could not let go off easily. The problem was that, the management misread this crisis as something limited to the online domain, it would not spill over to the offline world and thought that addressing the complaints inadequately would just fuel the fire so keeping quiet was preferred. Besides, it thought that this was a business decision after all and that the public should not have a say in influencing their management while overlooking the fact that the TV station had a public and social responsibility with regard to fairness and balance. Moreover, the "happy mood" that still went on in FujiTV's shows despite the stormy external environment showed a clear disconnect with reality and was said to be a key factor that fanned the flames leading to the protests in Odaiba.
- One reason why there were a number of preconceptions and misunderstandings formed about FujiTV with regard to this Korean content saga was how it promoted shows. When it was the PR run for FujiTV's dramas and movies, the leading cast members would appear in various programmes from morning to night. That same method was applied to Korean content thus it further cemented the impression that FujiTV was trying too hard to promote these shows. As a result, it earned FujiTV the label of being a pro-Korean and anti-Japanese TV station and even led to unfounded rumours such as there was a high number of Korean employees working there so there was a push for Korean content. Such untruths when repeated constantly gradually became seemingly-true opinions and misconceptions about FujiTV which are hard to remove.
- In this time and age though, that same approach of ignoring what happens online is not going to work. Besides, by adopting a perspective that looks down on opinions from netizens and the general public is likely to attract worse criticism for FujiTV. While there were indeed valid grounds for FujiTV to be criticised for its lopsided programming, how it handled the situation was probably what led to the situation getting out of hand.
- Up till the early 1990s, FujiTV was controlled by the founding Shikanai family for three generations. However, the side effects of this one-man management system were starting to show.
- In order to break this vicious cycle, Hieda who was the president then planned the coup primarily with Hazama Shigeaki who was the president of Sankei Shimbun.
- The coup group was made up of people who worried about the future of FujiTV and the harm brought about by the authoritarian management.
- "Shuukan Bunshun" was roped in to help in publishing a series of damning reports against third-generation leader Shikanai Hiroaki, thanks to leaked secrets from contacts within the TV station.
- On the eve of the coup i.e. before the board of directors' meeting, the group gathered in a hotel room where "Bunshun" reporters were also at.
- As soon as the coup ended, what went on at that final gathering, who was in the coup group and the process leading to the coup was published in "Bunshun" 2 days later. That was considered very fast in that era where there was no electronic version of printed publications. Thanks to the insider information and the speed at which the report was published, "Bunshun" won hands down over the other media outlets for this coverage.
- Even after the coup, the members got together regularly for a while due to their common affection for FujiTV. As such, he felt frustrated that the very company which they were so fond of back then had evolved to become like this and wondered those who were part of the coup had already forgot their initial intention of doing things in its best interests.
- In the 2 decades following the coup, FujiTV was able to claim that as the golden period of the TV station and was even the top TV station among the 5 key networks to boast of No.1 ratings for 7 years in a row (2004 to 2010). However, it has now become the "forever No.4" among the 5 with NTV even hogging the top spot for 5 straight years in the past decade or so.
- He felt that the current situation was due to Hieda being even more authoritarian than the Shikanai family, putting only yes-men in the management and maintaining a Showa-era corporate culture till today.
- FujiTV was mockingly known as a TV station which placed a lot of emphasis on its female announcers thanks to the annual New Year parade in the HQ building led by Hieda since it moved to Odaiba in 1997 and choosing at least one female announcer per year as in the new hire exercise based on his preferences.
- The number of people who were hired through connections is also one factor that led to the stiff corporate culture which frowned on change and diversity. Examples quoted in the article include Fujishima Julie Keiko, the daughter of Mary Kitagawa and niece of Johnny Kitagawa who used to work in the directors' secretarial office and Kishi Nobuchiyo who was the late prime minister Abe Shinzo's nephew and son of former defence minister Kishi Nobuo. Besides the offspring and relatives of celebrities, politicians, sponsors and advertising companies, even those who were related to major publishers and tabloids which would write bad things about FujiTV were also hired. While not all these people could be proven to have been hired based on connections, it was true that hiring decisions were indeed influenced by the senior management.
- Usually, when ratings are low, the morale would go down as well in TV stations. However, under the Hieda system, it didn't really affect the employees because there was a lot of revenue outside the TV business, its fundamentals were strong and the salaries were higher compared to the competition. For example, the average annual salary of a FujiTV employee was JPY 16.21 million compared to NTV's JPY 12.96 million even though the latter has higher ratings. With this kind of difference, even if the job is unfulfilling, the employees would be content to remain with this company and not bother joining the union.
- On the other hand, since salaries could not be reduced, money had to be saved through cutting of production budgets. Even if the programmes were no longer as popular, they were still maintained for a long time. This was precisely the situation since 2010. People who didn't go along with Hieda were transferred to subsidiaries while only those who agreed with him got promoted. To make things worse, those who tasted success in the past insisted on doing the same types of shows thus leading to a high repetition of similar content over the years. For example, although the Monday 9pm timeslot used to boast of various "trendy dramas" especially love stories, younger viewers were no longer so keen on this genre since 2010. Even so, the proportion of love stories in this timeslot still remains high to this day.
- Due to FujiTV's strong ties with Yoshimoto Kogyo, some of its shows like "Waratte Iitomo" and "Oretachi hyoukinzoku" had become testing grounds for unknown and new comedians and dragged down the overall quality of the programmes.
- One of those in the coup group who is still an executive in FujiTV and a friend of Kimata revealed that even though Hieda had been persuaded to step down many times in the past, he always insisted that the group would collapse if he leaves. The irony was that, he was the one who led the coup in the 90s but he also became the one to eradicate those who could rise against him now.
- Kimata revealed that he left "Bungei Shunju" as a managing director when the then-president had a love child with an employee and tried to become the chairman of the group. He didn't think that the company would survive under such management and left when his advice fell on deaf years. At that time, FujiTV executives held a farewell party for him and he still remembered what they said to him: "Even though you could have become the president, you gave that up to thwart the current president's rise to become the chairman and this was so gratifying to see. However, we don't have that kind of courage so we can only continue to leech onto the company for survival."
- Kimata expressed understanding at the FujiTV's directors' dilemma then because the difference in salaries between Bunshun and them was very big and choosing to stay for the sake of themselves and their families was natural. However, FujiTV is one of the few companies which has broadcast rights awarded by the country and needs to be impartial in its reporting and transparent in its operations.
- As for the blunder by "Shuukan Bunshun" about A-san and the seemingly played-down correction subsequently, Kimata felt that it should have been done properly and a formal apology should be issued. There was also a need to examine how the error could have arisen.