TBS releases follow-up report on its investigation on inappropriate behaviour involving its employees

Following the furore over the Nakai Masahiro & FujiTV sexual violence scandal, various TV stations in Japan conducted their own internal investigations to identify similar instances of inappropriate behaviour such as sexual harassment towards and/or involving its employees and work associates in the entertainment industry. It wasn't surprising then that the "common answer" was that there were no such cases uncovered.

Although TBS had released an initial report on 21 February 2025 claiming that there was no instances of such behaviour, it conducted a follow-up investigation which uncovered several cases, albeit way back in the past. As such, the TV station had to issue a follow-up report on 25 April 2025 in which it apologised for its inadequate initial investigation and will take measures to prevent future recurrences. However, it would not reveal any information which could lead to the identification of the parties involved so as to prevent secondary damage to those affected.

As to other TV stations will follow suit with more in-depth investigations and if any cases uncovered will be revealed, only time will tell.

The 4 cases uncovered by TBS are as follows:

• About 25 years ago, a TBS announcer suffered inappropriate bodily contact initiated by a cast member of a programme at the side of the stage while recording was going on. Although the announcer and the staff present had told the cast member to stop, the person did not change his attitude nor stop his actions.

• About 20 years ago, a TBS announcer was invited to a meal gathering by a cast member of a programme who persistently asked her to date him. Although the announcer concerned had complained to her superiors about this behaviour and asked for action to be taken, the person-in-charge had only warned this cast member verbally but did not take any action such as removing him from the programme. The announcer was extremely dissatisfied with how TBS had handled the matter.

• About 15 years ago, multiple TBS announcers had complained of being touched inappropriately by a cast member at the recording studio but there was no action taken to resolve this.

• About 15 years ago at a programme gathering, a cast member had persistently tried to kiss a TBS announcer but the producer and other staff members present did not step in to help and stop the cast member.

As to why TBS did not take action then for these cases, it acknowledged that its awareness of harassment as an organisation was inadequate and there was no proper training nor reporting mechanism in place at that time. They also cited the testimony of one victim who had suffered the indignation for a long time and revealed how difficult it was to talk about this again. TBS apologised for its inability to protect its employees and to the victimised employees who had suffered throughout the years.

With regard to how TBS plans to handle such situations in future, it said that it was fully aware of and recognised its duty to bring about a positive change to the TV media industry's long-standing bad practices and condoning such behaviour as highlighted by the third-party investigation committee's report on FujiTV released in March 2025. They will do their best to protect the human rights of everyone, not just their own employees but also those who work with them and make sure that they themselves will not be the ones perpetuating or abetting such inappropriate actions. Going forward, TBS will make sure that they will announce major compliance violations as soon as they are aware and called upon the public not to make baseless claims or defamatory claims online with regard to this matter.