Friday, May 02, 2025

Third-party Investigation Committee's Report on the Nakai Masahiro sexual violence case & FujiTV's role in it - Part 5: Events leading up to A's resignation


In this installment, here is a look at the key events that happened and actions taken by various parties in the lead-up to A's resignation including how the settlement was reached:

A's hospitalisation
  • After A was hospitalised, she was continuously tormented by flashbacks of the incident that resulted in her worsening physical and mental conditions. In her messages to F, she conveyed her worry about her income and how she needed to think about how to deal with Nakai going forward.
  • Although A was to have been discharged at the end of July 2023, her self-harm attempt just before that caused the discharge to be postponed. Her physical condition worsened and symptoms such as fever, pain, rashes and photosensitivity appeared.
  • A was transferred to the psychiatric ward in late July 2023 and had a change in her attending physician whose diagnosis of A was that she was suffering from PTSD. A was instructed not to watch TV and advised to seek trauma treatment. Communication between A and F was then changed from the new doctor D to F.
  • In order for A to concentrate on her treatment and not worry about her income, F sought approval from CX to continue paying A her full salary and treat her home recuperation as remote work. This was not the first example of such a treatment for employees.
  • H told F that CX would respect A's wishes if A decided to launch a lawsuit against Nakai.
  • When F sent a message to A about CX's decision, A felt uneasy and uncertain about this as it was odd for the company to continue paying her salary in full despite her not working.
  • On 22 August 2023, A submitted her PTSD diagnosis with her doctor's recommendation that she should recuperate until end September to H through F. 
  • Although her doctor had suggested that A should go out with friends to take her mind off things and aid in the recuperation process, A expressed her wish to F that she wanted to return to work from the last week of August.

The reporting to the senior management and subsequent actions
  • G and E suddenly called on Ohta Tooru in his office on 21 August 2023 to inform him about the incident between Nakai and A. Ohta had apparently been told by G before in July 2023 that this was a dispute between a man and a woman but only realised the severity of the matter as a case of sexual violence during this August meeting. He called then-president Minato on the spot and headed to Minato's office together with E and G immediately to report on this matter.
  • Despite the fact that Minato was told that this was a case of A being the victim of sexual violence inflicted by Nakai and that A was suicidal and suffering physically and mentally as a result, the individuals gathered in Minato's office expressed doubt over why the two of them had met outside of working hours in private and why A had gone to Nakai's apartment in the first place. 
  • The investigation committee pointed out that this exchange reflected clearly the lack of understanding towards sexual violence and low level of human rights awareness by those present at this meeting.
  • The four individuals gathered in Minato's office came to the conclusion that they would ensure:
  1. A's wellbeing and her interests would be the top priority, 
  2. Her return to work in the most natural and comfortable way should be ensured
  3. Upon A's return to work, the engagement of Nakai in CX's programmes should be ceased in a way that should not raise suspicion
  4. In order to prevent the situation from being publicly known, information was only to be shared between Minato, Ohta, G, E, F and doctors C and D.
  • However, Minato was not told that H was already in the know and was the contact person with A. As such, H was not aware that such an agreement was reached by the senior management.
  • During the hearing with the testimony, Minato commented that this approach was designed to prevent A's suicide as they were most concerned about history repeating itself as per what happened in the "Terrace House" case and " they wouldn't be able to bear that kind of responsibility" if anything happened to A.
  • In Ohta's hearing, he said that the wait-and-see approach towards Nakai's programmes stemmed from the thinking that any speculation over an abrupt end to these shows could put A's life in danger so they strived to do this in a "natural manner". 
  • On 2 to 3 occasions in early September 2023, Minato, Ohta and G discussed how to handle this matter. However, the trio did not report this incident to CX's compliance department and did not even discuss whether they should be doing so.
  • Despite the case involving Nakai and A being a serious matter which could jeopardise the organisation, the trio did not seek professional advice from experts regarding compliance and human rights issues nor report this to other directors, auditors nor the board of directors.
  • Whatever had been decided between the trio was neither conveyed to F nor A. If F and the company doctor C were allowed to participate in these meetings, the trio would have gotten a clear understanding on the severity of the sexual violence case and taken appropriate actions. 
  • The investigation committee also hit out at the biased nature of these decision makers - all male and middle-aged who assumed that whatever happened in Nakai's apartment was just a private dispute between a man and woman. As such, the failure to include other perspectives and engage in sufficient discussion on the matter was a key factor leading to CX's eventual poor handling of the incident.
  • CX's narrow focus on preventing A's suicide also reflected the management's lack of awareness and consideration of the severity of this matter.
  • B was concerned that the issue between Nakai and A would lead to a likelihood of Nakai's programmes being affected and him having to quit from showbiz especially after A's hospitalisation was extended. As such, he went ahead to discuss the matter with his superiors between late August and early September 2023 without Nakai's knowledge.
  • B told his superiors verbally about what happened and that Nakai had approached him for help to resolve this in mid July 2025. However, B failed to reveal that he had been instructed to deliver solatium money to A or the BBQ gathering on 31 May 2023 which was held days before the sexual violence incident happened. 
  • B testified to the investigation committee that he didn't think that these things had a relation to the incident so he chose not to report these to his superiors.
  • In return, B's boss G did not ask any questions to clarify the facts of the report and simply told him not to tell anyone else about this. B told the committee that he understood this to be an instruction not to mess up the programming schedule by letting this incident be widely known. As for whether Nakai would get to continue with his programmes, B understood this to be something which he would leave to G to decide and handle.
  • At the time when the senior management were informed of the incident, the only regular programme which Nakai had with CX was "Dareka to Nakai". However, there was an announcement made just on 13 July to the advertising firms that this show would be in the programming calendar from October 2023 and they were already in the "all-fix" stage where advertising slots were being sold. As such, Minato, Ohta and G decided that it would be best not to touch the show for now. 
  • In addition, the trio "speculated on their own" that if they were to do anything to that show, it would trigger a negative reaction by A if the public tried to guess what happened to lead to such a move. And they were fearful that if Nakai's hardcore fans came to know about what happened, that would unleash a torrent of personal attacks on A which could potentially endanger her life.
  • The trio also did not conduct a hearing with Nakai himself because they assumed that Nakai would know that CX would eventually hear about this case through B when he approached B for help.
  • The trio did not consider at all whether to speak to A directly on how she felt about Nakai's continuation with his programme and simply made the decision to continue with the show based on their skewed assumptions of the situation.
  • Ohta said during the hearing with the committee that even if they thought that this incident should be handled by a third party committee, it would have been in vain if it led to the death of someone once the matter got out into the open. Likewise, while G admitted to the committee that there was not enough thought put into the decision to maintain Nakai's show, he acknowledged that the trio should have taken the step to conduct an investigation into Nakai and hold a hearing with him.

A's discharge and inability to return to work
  • A was discharged from the hospital in early September 2023 and continued recuperating at home while on medication and going for follow-up appointments.
  • In a bid to return to work from October, she attended a meeting of the announcers' department remotely on 22 September. Despite her intention, her condition was erratic so it became difficult for her to return to work as planned.
  • She resumed meeting CX's corporate doctor for the first time on 19 December 2023 and continued seeing the doctor on a monthly basis after that.
  • During the consultation in December, A expressed her inability to imagine returning to work and seeing Nakai or even just his poster displayed in CX on a daily basis especially since she would be reminded of what happened. As such, she stressed how important it was for her not to see Nakai as a key part of her recovery process.
  • Meanwhile, CX had been getting other announcers to fill in for A's programmes while she was on medical leave. However, when it became apparent that she couldn't return in time for the new programming schedule from October 2023, they had to take her off all of her shows except for one. The management feared that A would lose the drive to return to work if she lost her position in all of her shows and decided to keep just one to assure her that she had a place to return to and maintained her profile on that programme's website.
  • As CX expected that A would react negatively to this decision, they got F to contact A over video calls between late September and early October 2023 to explain the decision. While A was in tears and protested about being "robbed of everything she had", she had no choice but to accept CX's decision in the end.
  • However, seeing that she lost her shows while Nakai continued to appear in his and had his poster displayed prominently in CX's premises, A was extremely disappointed and felt that it would be difficult to return to 
  • CX. Seeing how A reacted in the video calls, F was very concerned about A and worried that this would push A to the brink of collapse thus F was also very stressed about this situation.
  • The committee pointed out that F was not trained to handle communications with a subordinate suffering from PTSD so it was natural that F would be stressed by this situation. Moreover, F herself was also an announcer and understood fully what it meant to an announcer to lose her position in a show. Despite having support from the corporate doctor, F was usually left alone to deliver bad news to or engage with A so this went beyond the reasonable scope of her managerial duties and further reflected CX's inappropriate handling of this matter.

A's Instagram post in October 2023
  • In October 2023, A posted a picture of herself lying on a bed while hospitalised on her Instagram account and wrote about her feelings at that time. This post attracted a variety of responses, both positive and negative, and was even reported in Internet articles. It also attracted speculation and led to an influx of queries to CX.
  • Due to concerns about criticism, slander and negative perceptions towards A and her condition, CX assembled a social media team from the PR, programming and compliance departments to come up with measures. However, this team was unaware of the case concerned even at this stage.
  • It was decided that F should talk to A about not posting anything to the public. When F tried to find out why A posted the photo on Instagram and explain that this would be detrimental to her eventual return to work, A replied in tears and questioned if the company was trying to take away her connection with society.
  • After consulting the doctors, they decided that allowing A to continue with her posting on social media if she wished would actually be to her benefit. As such, the management did not impose restrictions on A's social media postings as A continued to post selfies and talked about her condition and feelings on Instagram. A told the corporate doctor that these Instagram posts were a form of stress relief and helped her to feel as if she was still connected with society.

The settlement
  • On 10 November 2023, A's lawyer sent a contents certification document to Nakai regarding the incident.
  • Nakai contacted B via SMS at 5.12pm on the same day about this and asked to meet the latter urgently. He also asked B to introduce a lawyer to him.
  • B could only think of lawyer K who had appeared in CX's programmes and passed K's contact details to Nakai before asking K to take on Nakai's case. 
  • Nakai visited the law firm and engaged K to be his lawyer on the same day. He then sent a thank you message to B for the introduction.
  • K was Minato's go-to-person for legal advice when producing programmes when the latter was still in the variety show department and was on-call 24 hours for any issues raised by the production staff at the variety centre. While CX and K never entered into a proper and formal client-lawyer relationship, CX paid K a monthly sum of legal advice fees. K had also appeared in the same CX shows as A and Nakai before.
  • For Nakai to hire K as his lawyer, there was a clear conflict of interest between CX and Nakai because the TV station had a duty of care towards its employee A, Nakai had inflicted sexual violence towards A and it already knew about this incident. Moreover, K was paid by CX for legal advisory work.
  • While K did his due diligence by asking B if it was OK for him to represent Nakai, B stated that he was asking for the favour in place of FujiTV. In the absence of a written approval from CX, K took it to mean that this request was done with the approval of the head of the programming department. However, B denied to the committee that he ever told K this.
  • K asked A's lawyer to confirm if A was OK with him representing Nakai. While A did not object to this, she was unhappy about this development because she saw this as the variety department, K and Nakai being on the same side. She also felt that CX had clearly chosen to take Nakai's side instead of hers.
  • When F heard about this development much later, she was in shock because that represented a deviation of what she thought the company should do i.e. protect A's interests. 
  • In this sense, B's introduction of K to Nakai dealt a second blow to A.
  • After multiple negotiations between A's lawyer and K, the settlement between A and Nakai was reached on 7 January 2024. Both parties were subjected to a confidentiality agreement which forbade them from talking about the incident and the settlement.
  • Just before the settlement was to be reached, B told his superiors in December 2023 that the matter would be settled soon.

Allowing Nakai to continue with his show and its subsequent demise
  • On 21 December 2023, CX conducted a briefing to advertising companies about their programming from April 2024. 
  • About 2 weeks before this briefing, Minato, Ohta and G got together to decide on the fate of "Matsumo to Nakai" (former name of "Dareka to Nakai"). They came to the conclusion that since A was unable to return to work as yet, ending this signature show which featured two big stars in less than a year would attract speculation and affect A as well so the show was to continue as normal.
  • However, Nakai's co-host Matsumoto Hitoshi was exposed for a sex-related scandal in a "Shuukan Bunshun" report published on 27 December 2023. This led to Matsumoto announcing an indefinite hiatus from work on 8 January 2024.
  • It was decided on 9 January that the show would proceed with a changed name "Dareka to Nakai" and a new host chosen to replace Matsumoto. The announcement regarding this was made on 4 February.
  • Due to the frenzy over handling Matsumoto's departure, Minato, Ohta and G never revisited the issue of whether to take Nakai off this show. Besides, CX wanted to keep the show going on until Matsumoto returned as per the intention of his agency.
  • After Nakai's incident with A first came to light late last year, it was announced that the show would end in March 2025. However, subsequent developments and revelations brought forward the demise of the show which was finally confirmed on 22 January.

A's resignation
  • On 28 March 2024, F got together with A's doctors to discuss how to support A's return to work. Since it would be difficult for her to do live shows immediately, they felt that it would be better for her to start off by doing things like narrations for the time being.
  • When A met the corporate doctor on 30 April 2024, she did not give any indication that she had the intention to quit.
  • However, A's condition worsened over the period of May to June the same year and she started going for trauma treatment from June. While she started to get better, she finally decided on resigning from CX.
  • On 4 July 2024, A sent an email to F about her intention and met her superiors in the presence of the corporate doctor on 10 July to discuss this face-to-face.
  • F said that she was surprised by this decision especially since they had already begun steps to prepare for her return to work.
  • However, A expressed her fury during that meeting especially towards B and the variety department for allowing Nakai to continue appearing in CX shows as if nothing had happened while she was unable to return to her job as an announcer. And since there was no guarantee that she wouldn't come into contact with Nakai at the TV station, there was no way she could return to work in CX.
  • Even when the report on A's decision was made known to senior management, G did not respond in any particular way.
  • During a subsequent meeting with A along with the doctors, G offered to let A switch to another department but her mind was already made up about leaving CX. A also expressed her wish to break off any further contact with Nakai and never have to see him again when she agreed to the settlement but that didn't mean that she had forgiven him for what he did.
  • Although Minato accepted A's decision to quit, he was not informed by those who had met A of what A had said about the variety department and Nakai as well as her indignation towards CX's treatment of Nakai.
  • Due to the processing time and adjustment of the announcement timing when announcers leave the company, A's resignation only became official in August. 
  • A told CX that she already had plans to go overseas and wanted the resignation to be finalised before her trip. She also cited the example of how other CX employees who resigned around the same period as her already had their resignations processed. As such, she felt that CX was trying to silence her by delaying her resignation.
  • Before her last day, A went to greet the staff of her shows and even met Minato. However, Minato assumed that A didn't know about him being aware of the incident and kept talking about unrelated things during their meeting. 
  • A finally left CX on 31 August 2024.
  • B informed Nakai via SMS on 9 September 2024 that A had quit. In response, Nakai said that he was glad and relieved that the matter had come to a close and thanked B for his help. B replied that he was glad to be of assistance and expressed his willingness to be of service again if anything came up in future.
  • As the decision to put "Dareka to Nakai" on hold was made with the assumption that A would return to work one day, the situation changed due to A's resignation.
  • In view of this, it was decided in August 2024 that the programme would end before April 2025. 
  • B was informed of this around 20 November but the reason for the decision due to Nakai's incident was not made known to him.
  • When B told Nakai about this the following day, the latter asked B if this was because of his incident but B just said that it was a collective decision made by the company.
  • In the meantime, once-off and special programmes continued to feature Nakai because other departments such as the sports department were not aware of what happened. As such, senior management who were in the know could not give orders to stop these decisions despite the internal understanding to cut Nakai out from CX's programming in a natural manner.

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