- Coincidence or on purpose? Despite Nakai Masahiro's ongoing scandal, WOWOW showed his 2008 movie "Watashi wa kai ni naritai" which had attracted a lot of attention back then because fellow SMAP member Kusanagi Tsuyoshi also appeared in it. This movie was shown from 2.30pm on 27 Jan which overlapped with FujiTV's second press conference for more than an hour as it ran all the way till 5.30pm. In addition, reruns have been planned for 2 Feb and 21 Feb.
While it is not clear when the programming schedule was decided, the uncanny timing did attract a lot of attention and discussion online. What's probably not known to many is that WOWOW's biggest shareholder is actually Fuji Media Holdings which holds about 20% of its shares as of 30 Sep 2024. It might not be a deliberate decision by Fuji to do this as WOWOW's shareholder but the coincidence did raise a lot of eyebrows.
- A regular board of directors' meeting for Fuji Media Holdings was held on 30 Jan 2025 which lasted for more than 4 hours.
- Discussion topics included management renewal and the assistance to be rendered to the third party investigation committee.
- New president Shimizu Kenji talked about Shuukan Bunshun's correction to its report and that there are various options to be considered as a response to this move but they have to be mindful of the potential impact this will have on the third party investigation committee's work.
- There was also doubt cast on the timing of the correction which happened on the day after the 27 Jan press conference.
- As for whether Hieda Hisashi will leave his post as the chairman of the Fuji Sankei Group and advisor of FujiTV, Shimizu revealed that there was no discussion of this matter during the meeting nor did Hieda voluntarily offer his resignation.
- Hieda was present at this meeting.
- Shimizu declined to share what Hieda said during the meeting.
- Shimizu Kenji sent an email to FujiTV employees on 30 Jan 2025 to apologise for causing pain and worry to them over the ongoing scandal. He also mentioned that FujiTV had a strong foundation to withstand the impact brought about by the lower revenue and called upon them to rest assured and continue to plan for the future. In addition, he specifically promised that more would be done in the areas of respect for human rights and ensuring transparency:
- Admitted that FujiTV's awareness of human rights issues was lacking and that it had reacted too slowly thus resulting in the loss of faith in the organisation. In order for all employees to work with peace of mind, he will build a fair and healthy working environment.
- Acknowledged that the current leadership had been criticised for being an "old boys' club which was not receptive to external views and promised to improve the transparency of the organisation
He then ended the email by saying that by acting honestly and in good faith, he hopes that everyone will be able to take pride in their work again by the time they regain the trust of the public. In order for this to happen, he said that every employee's involvement would be critical.
- A new casualty of the Nakai & FujiTV incident? Shofukutei Tsurube was discovered to have attended the May 2023 barbecue that was held at Nakai's place one month before the latter's incident with X-san happened. Also at the event was comedian and host Hiromi. When asked about it during NTV's "DayDay.", Hiromi insisted that it was an ordinary barbecue and that he and Tsurube had left early together.
Coincidentally or not, it was announced on 30 Jan 2025 that the 4 Feb broadcast of Tsurube's BS11 programme "Mugaku Tsurunoma" had been cancelled. The monthly talk show is released via U-NEXT since May 2022 and BS11 started doing broadcasts of past episodes since Sep 2024.
In addition, revolving sushi chain Sushiro had taken off Tsurube's ads from its official website on 30 Jan. He has been their CM character since July 2023. When interviewed by "Josei Jishin", Sushiro said that the decision was made on the basis of "customer feedback".
In response to these movements, there have been an influx of comments online to BS11 and Sushiro asking for a clear explanation of the reason and what exactly is problematic about Tsurube to warrant such actions. In particular, Sushiro was criticised for ditching Tsurube so easily over his attendance at that barbecue despite him supporting them while Sushiro was in trouble in Jan 2023. Back then, a youth had uploaded a video of him licking the sushi and placing them back on the conveyor belt, the soy sauce bottle and cups at the table which led to a lawsuit by Sushiro asking for damages of JPY 67m (later withdrawn after the youth apologised and acknowledged his responsibility). Due to the incident, business at Sushiro was badly affected but thanks to Tsurube's ads, it was said to be a key factor in boosting consumer confidence again.
- FujiTV's broadcast rights for sporting events and sponsorships with the sporting scene are also undergoing various changes including withdrawals and reviews of existing agreements:
- FujiTV announced on 30 Jan 2025 that it will not be airing the 49th Japan Grand Sumo Tournament due to begin at Ryogoku Kokugikan National Sumo Arena from 9 Feb 2025. While the tournament will still proceed, some parts will be changed after discussions with related parties. The tournament organised by FujiTV, is a regular fixture for sumo fans but due to its ongoing scandal, 3 sponsors have pulled out from the event thus leading to the cancellation of the TV broadcast. SKY Co., Ltd. decided to withdraw its sponsorship right after FujiTV's first press conference on 17 Jan while MIRARTH Holdings made the decision on 24 Jan. As for The Nissin Oillio Group, it decided to end all collaboration with FujiTV, pull out its CMs and will decide what to do going forward after observing the situation's developments.
- One of the three soccer championships in Japan - Levain Cup has been broadcast on FujiTV. It is supposed to begin the new season on 20 Mar 2025 but there have been concerns raised at the J-League board of directors' meeting on 28 Jan about FujiTV's scandal.
- While FujiTV has a 3-year deal up to 2025 for the broadcast rights of F1, whether it can go ahead with the broadcast this year is still a question mark depending on how the scandal progresses until then. This is especially because of the presence of big-name sponsors which will be more particular about compliance issues than most Japanese companies.
- The Japan Volleyball Association's SV League which started in 2024, is expected to broadcast its matches for this season on FujiTV's CS channel. The All-Japan Senior High School Volleyball Championships ended its season recently. The association is currently reviewing the situation and deciding what to do with these broadcast rights going forward. On the other hand, since the broadcast rights of the FIVB Volleyball World Championship and Nations Series belong to TBS, there might be a possibility that JVA may award the rights for the SV and the high school tournament to another TV station.
- As for the golfing scene, FujiTV organises the Fuji Sankei Ladies (April) and Fuji Sankei Classic (September) championships and is a supporter of the AXA Ladies Golf Tournament (March). The Japan Ladies Professional Golfers' Association (JLPGA) is currently deciding on what to do at the moment.
- FujiTV airs figure skating tournaments such as the World Figure Skating Championships (March). However, as the broadcast rights are given by the International Skating Union, the Japan Skating Federation is unable to answer on their behalf as to what would happen to the broadcast rights agreement with FujiTV.
- Japan Racing Association which has been broadcasting its horse races on FujiTV for many years, decided to pull out its CMs from 20 Jan.
- The number of companies which have stopped its CMs on FujiTV is reported to have passed the 80 mark as this also includes those which work with the local TV stations in the same network.
- Akashiya Sanma was one of the few to voice support for FujiTV openly during this difficult time. He mentioned during his radio show that he wondered what would happen to the TV station from April onwards in terms of money due to the sponsors and advertisers fallout. He revealed that he used to be nicknamed FujiTV's child in the past because he had worked a lot with them almost exclusively so their support was critical in his career's success all these years. Due to his longstanding relationship with the TV station and its staff ranging from the management to young assistant directors, it could be why he was concerned about the fate of the TV station. There were also many who held the view that this scandal had nothing to do with the staff members who are at the lower end of the hierarchy and it was unfair for them to bear the brunt of the aftermath.
- While "Shuukan Bunshun" has been criticised for its error in an earlier article and subsequent correction about A-san's role in the incident, "Josei Seven" which was the first to break the news on 19 Dec 2024, stood its ground for its initial report. It stated to "Sports Hochi" that based on its investigation, they were able to ascertain that A had actually invited 3 women who worked in the entertainment industry to join the meal gathering but he suddenly said that he wouldn't be able to attend.
- Some members of the media were also criticised for their behaviour at the second press conference of FujiTV.
Of these, Mochizuki Isoko from Tokyo Shimbun was singled out for her aggressive and persistent style of questioning. When interviewed, she admitted that although she wanted to keep her emotions in check when it was her turn, she was angered by how the management kept skirting around the questions and gave ambiguous answers. She also pointed out that the TV station was doing things that went against what they were saying because letting Nakai continue to appear on TV could have provoked X-san even more despite them saying that they didn't want to do anything against her wish of not letting anyone know about what happened. Even if they did not have direct access to X-san, the logical expectation was that they could still consult her on her wishes through her doctor or legal representative. As such, she ended up raising her voice especially when she heard how much the management claimed that they were angered about this incident but their actions gave the impression that they didn't care less about how the incident had affected X-san or were aware of the gravity of what it meant by sexual assault.
Some had also attributed the reason why FujiTV's press conference dragged on for that long to its open-door policy this time. It was pointed out that some members of the press were going endlessly about their viewpoints rather than asking questions, heckling the management or asking the same questions repeatedly. This led many to comment online that the level of Japanese journalism displayed during the press conference was embarrassing.
Some of the so-called freelance journalists and YouTubers were also criticised for seizing this opportunity to "rub salt into injury for the elite and high-and-mighty" this time since the FujiTV management could not "retaliate" after their botched press conference earlier.
- As the other TV stations go about investigating possible issues in their operations following what happened in FujiTV, there were two cases of misdeeds uncovered in TV Asahi and TBS Radio:
- Shimizu Atsushi, a director from TV Asahi submitted his resignation on 31 Jan as he was found to have misused entertainment fees totaling JPY 1.16 million in 2024. Despite having meals with people in the company, he passed off these expenses as that of entertaining external parties. TV Asahi commented that this was unacceptable behaviour and would strengthen its internal audit systems and prevent a recurrence.
- TBS Radio fired Ikushima Hiroshi from his radio show on 27 Jan. He was found to have sent inappropriate photos received from a friend to the staff members which were highly offensive to the female staff. In addition, he was said to have vented his anger towards staff members during a 90-minute live broadcast. TBS Radio apologised for not being more aware of harassment issues and identifying such actions in time.
More wrongdoings or inappropriate behaviour are expected to be uncovered in time to come as there is closer scrutiny on the operations of the TV stations and the entities/people they work with.
- The timeline and process surrounding Okada Junichi's appointment as the new co-host of "Dare ka to Nakai" attracted speculation. Ever since Matsumoto Hitoshi left the show due to his own scandal, Ninomiya Kazunari was appointed as the new co-host from Feb to Apr 2024 after the show changed its title followed by Muro Tsuyoshi who took over until mid Dec 2024. The thing was, Nakai himself was informed in Nov 2024 that the show was to be cancelled but Okada's appointment from Jan 2025 onwards was announced on 15 Dec which suggested that he was engaged by FujiTV after the decision was made to cancel the show.
In the end, the first episode featuring Okada could no longer be shown as the scandal broke at the end of last year and the show was officially cancelled on 22 Jan 2025.
- Although FujiTV had claimed that A-san was never involved in setting up the meal gathering in question which led to the incident, Sponichi reported that he has been transferred to the HR department as of 30 Jan 2025 and that his duties as the programming department's director will be taken over by his boss. Since 15 Jan, A-san was said to have been issued with orders not to head into the office.
According to insiders from FujiTV's programming department, postings to the HR department are usually for those who are about to begin maternity or childcare leave or those to be posted to other companies within the group. Besides, this period is traditionally not when transfers are done. Since A-san is supposed to go through questioning by the third party investigation committee, this is probably why he was transferred out since he would most likely not be able to continue his work as usual in the programming department.
- The Japanese government announced on 30 Jan 2025 that as of 29 Jan, it had already instructed government organisations and ministries to stop placing ads on FujiTV or abort plans to do so. Of these, there were 2 ads from the Cabinet Office and one each from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare and National Tax Agency which were all pulled out. In addition, there are 4 ongoing tie-ups with FujiTV programmes. One is with the Fire and Disaster Management Agency i.e. the drama "119 Emergency Call" which is being reconsidered while the other three are currently being reviewed.
- The spring edition of "FNS Kayousai" scheduled to be shown on 9 April 2025 has been cancelled as reported by Sponichi:
- The programme began in 1974 and has been a regular fixture as a music special in the year-end lineup.
- Former president Minato Koichi was the person-in-charge of this programme from 2002 to 2014.
- Since 2012, there has been a summer edition every year.
- The spring edition is shown on an irregular basis since 2016.
- This year's spring edition is the first since 2022 and meant to be the highlight of the "Aoharu Week".
- However, with Fuji Media Holdings' announcement on 30 Jan 2025 that FujiTV's advertisement income is expected to reduce by JPY 23.3 billion as compared to the previous forecast, parties involved in the spring edition had been told that it was impossible to spend money on this now.
- It is estimated that the production costs for the spring edition is between JPY 50 million and JPY 70 million. Compared to a drama series which cost more than JPY 30 million per episode / one season would cost close to JPY 300m, the spring edition's costs are considered cheap.
- However, the issue was said to be more with the fact that the "Aoharu Week" is actually Minato's pet project so sponsors are expected to react negatively to this link.
- Unlike the winter edition which tends to invite big names in the music industry, the summer and spring editions offer the opportunity for new and up-and-rising artists to be showcased. As such, music industry insiders felt that it was a pity the spring edition had to be cancelled.
- As the situation is still unclear, the fate of the summer edition in July is undecided for now.
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