This big Bunshun bombshell of today actually started making its rounds online since last night.
Usually, when a celebrity's name becomes a trending word on social media like X, it can only mean one of these things:
- Something good has happened or the person's work attracts positive responses
- The person is involved in some negative news.
As such, when I happened to see Nagano Mei's name trending on X last night, I somehow had the hunch that it should be the second scenario. The reason being, yesterday was not the day when "Caster" was shown on TV and I didn't recall her having any recent movie releases.
As it turned out, the reason why her name was trending was because of the following post which Bunshun posted on their account last night which said that they were going to release a scoop at 12 noon today (JST) about an affair between a "very popular heroine" who is appearing in an ongoing drama and a "big name actor":
As of today at 4.30pm JST, there are as many as 31 million views of this post, 1,100 comments and 5,300 reposts which shows how much attention this piece of news has attracted.
I was truly surprised to see Nagano being named as the heroine in question but what was more unexpected was that the guy said to be having an affair with her is Tanaka Kei. No offence to him and his fans but honestly, I don't really see him as a big name actor...as yet. And I remember them acting together as father and daughter before and Tanaka is a good 15 years older than Nagano. Much as they may be on good terms, it was a bit difficult to imagine them being linked in this manner especially since Tanaka has been married for so long and has 2 kids. As such, I was quite skeptical about them being named by netizens as the people involved in this scandal and didn't want to post about it until the news was revealed by Bunshun today.
What's interesting to note is that, while Nagano's name became a trending keyword last night, Tanaka didn't. It may be due to the fact that he isn't a stranger to controversy so people might not have been so shocked to see his name linked to such a scandal. As seen from some of the comments, many were saying that it was a matter of time for him to do something like this, not whether he would be capable of doing it. Most recently, his big party for more than 10 people held in 2021 during the COVID pandemic at that time when close contact and big events like these were discouraged to stop the infection from spreading attracted lots of criticism. Tanaka himself came down with COVID as well which meant that he had to take time off work and risked spreading the virus further through the people who were with him at that time. On the other hand, Nagano's image was comparatively much cleaner so I guess the shock from seeing her name being implicated in this kind of negative news was greater.
The best is yet to come.
If you thought that the affair is already raising eyebrows, imagine the double whammy of being told that Nagano may be two-timing Tanaka with another actor. This part was not mentioned in Bunshun's post last night so it was something totally unexpected. What's more, the actor concerned is Kim Mu-jun who is currently working together with Nagano in "Caster".
Now, I don't know which is worse - the alleged affair or the two-timing?
Since Bunshun's article is behind a paywall, the key points about the story are collected based on various sources such as other media outlets which reproduced parts of the story and netizens who shared screenshots of the article. If you are interested, you can sign up for Bunshun's subscription to gain access.
The Alleged Affair & The Unexpected Catch
- Nagano and Tanaka met after working together in the 2021 movie "Soshite, baton wa watasareta".
According to an "associate", their relationship began last Sep after they reunited at a meal gathering in July for the first time in a long while. Back when they were filming the movie in 2020, there was nothing unusual observed in their interactions.
- Due to this scandal, the fact that they both announced having tested positive for COVID in July 2021 within a span of 3 days from each other became talked about again and fueled much speculation on the state of their relationship from back then.
- Bunshun reportedly received a tip-off last autumn about Nagano and Tanaka and subsequently caught them going to a theme park together in Dec 2024 and him picking her up from the TV station on 7 Apr 2025 after she knocked off and them going off to spend the evening together.
- While Bunshun's target was initially Nagano and Tanaka, they unexpectedly found that Kim Mu-jun who is Nagano's co-star in "Caster" also went on a date with her on 15 April and spent the night at her place. Up until Kim left her house on 18 April to return to South Korea, he was found to have been staying there on consecutive nights. The explanation given by both sides was that they were never alone together and that Nagano's mum was there as well.
- Later in the same evening, Nagano went to meet Tanaka at 7pm for a 3-hour meal at a high-class izakaya before going to a bar in Roppongi. They returned to Nagano's apartment around 3am.
- Around 3am on 19 April 2025, Tanaka was caught in a drunken state at the entrance of Nagano's apartment block with her by his side. He reportedly spent the night at her place and left around 11am the following day. In response to this, Nagano claimed that her mother was also in the apartment so they were not alone there.
- When Tanaka was interviewed in person by Bunshun as he left Nagano's apartment, he denied that he was romantically involved with Nagano but acknowledged for his behaviour that caused this misunderstanding. His somewhat conflicting answers also gave much room for imagination on the nature of their relationship which seemed to be too close for comfort in the case of a married man
(Just my personal opinion here: It may have been best for him to shut up and not make the situation worse with his choice of words and way of answering the reporter.)
- Tanaka insisted that he and Nagano are just very good friends.
- He apologised for causing inconvenience and trouble to her simply because of her helping him when he was drunk.
- When asked if he and Nagano are in a romantic relationship, Tanaka said that "they can't have such a relationship. However, there were times when he did think that he would enter into a relationship with her if it was possible in reality". In his exact words: 男女の関係にはなれないです。なれない、なれないです。なりたいのにって言われたら、そりゃなれるもんならなりたいと思う時もありますけど
- When asked if he and Nagano were together during Halloween, he admitted that they did meet but there were other friends around. As the reporter probed further if the meeting was at Nagano's house, Tanaka did not give a clear answer.
- When asked if their relationship had ended, Tanaka replied that it was difficult to say. However, when the reporter mentioned very specifically that the two of them had decided to put some distance between them since April this year as first initiated by Nagano, Tanaka was very flustered and kept asking the reporter how they came to know about this matter.
- The problem was, Tanaka was caught spending the night at Nagano's apartment as recent as 19 April. As such, it was clear that his answer above was contradictory.
- While Tanaka apologised for causing inconvenience to Nagano by spending the night at her place in a drunken state, he denied initially that he had a spare key to her apartment but he inadvertently admitted that he had "returned the key to her a long time ago". This suggested that he indeed was in possession of the spare key to Nagano's place, albeit probably not now anymore.
- Tanaka admitted that his wife did not know about him spending the night at Nagano's place and acknowledged that it was inappropriate for him to do so and let a junior take care of him when he was drunk.
- With regard to the Halloween party in question and to substantiate their claims in the report, Bunshun included the following photos taken in Oct 2024.
- In response to the news,
Tanaka's agency released a statement that Tanaka denied having an affair and the agency believes him and will not conduct any investigation or is worried about this situation since they know that he has a habit of drinking with work colleagues. Although they do acknowledge that he can't hold his liquor well and yet still likes to drink and had gotten into some embarrassing situations in the past because of his drunken state, he had never been involved in a romantic scandal like this and is working hard in his acting career. However, the issue this time stems from a misunderstanding due to his actions which could be misinterpreted and viewed negatively. They admitted that he was at fault as well and had firmly requested Tanaka to be more mindful of his actions.
- Tanaka also issued another written explanation to Bunshun to clarify his stance after the in-person interview done when he left Nagano's place. He revealed that his friends had reminded him before that it was problematic for him to meet Nagano so often. That was when he first realised that this could be an issue for both of them even though they really enjoyed each other's company. He said that if he remembered correctly, what he meant by "it had ended" when he talked to the reporter was that he decided to stop meeting her so frequently. As he was still hungover at the time of the interview, he said that this was why his words did not convey accurately what he meant.
As for the part about having her house's spare key, Tanaka clarified that she did give him the carpark key to her apartment block so as to make it convenient for her friends to park there when they came over. However, he had already returned that to her long ago.
- As for Nagano's agency, they
released a statement to deny that she was romantically involved with Tanaka and they just have a close relationship as senior-junior who meet up for meals and drinks. Nagano also has the habit of inviting her friends of both genders to her house for gatherings so this was not something restricted to Tanaka or Kim. However, what happened did create a misunderstanding so they have issued a firm warning for Nagano to be more mindful of her behaviour and apologised to all work parties and sponsors for causing worry and inconvenience to them.
With regard to her relationship with Kim, the agency also denied that they are dating and just colleagues.
- Perhaps the immediate concern is how sponsors and work associates such as TV stations would see this scandal. Based on the
estimation of Nagano currently holding 11 CM deals, the potential financial damage including loss of the deal and compensation could go up to JPY 700m. Sponsors can also choose to cancel CM deals or hold off the broadcast of CMs for the time being until the scandal dies down. Then it will be the TV stations which have to decide what to do next depending on the sponsors' preferences.
- According to Bengoshi.com News, the spouse i.e. Sakura in this case has the right to launch a civil suit against Nagano if it is proven later that the affair is indeed true. The market rate for damages to be paid to the spouse depends on whether the marriage ended up in divorce or not. If the couple divorces, the range will be from JPY 1.5 million to JPY 2.5 million. Otherwise, it will be up to JPY 1.5m. However, damages may not be awarded if it is proven that the other party did not know about the existing marriage.
Given that his marital status is widely known, there is no way Nagano can claim ignorance of this fact especially since they had worked together before. Then again, even for celebrities, the market rate for damages would not surge to hundreds of millions though.
- The curse of Prada strikes again? Coincidentally or not, Nagano was named last Sep as a brand ambassador for Prada which has seen a string of its ambassadors end up in trouble over various reasons. The most recent example would be Kim Soo-hyun who is currently in the midst of his dating controversy with the late Kim Sae-ron since the time she was still a teenager and had his endorsement deal cancelled in just three months.
Just my personal view here:
I think the phrase "too close for comfort" probably sums up the root cause of this scandal best. Men and women can be good friends but there is a certain boundary to observe especially when one or both parties are attached. Letting a married man stay overnight at your place and him not letting his wife know where he was when he failed to return home - no matter how you look at it, it's hard not to let your imagination run wild.
Given the nature of their occupations, being mindful of how they are perceived is even more important.
Holding hands - I don't know how you can justify that.
There have been countless examples of how young promising actresses go down the path of doom because of their involvement with a married colleague, whether it was true or not. In Japan, the scales are tipped even more unfairly against women because the guy always gets out unscathed after a while but the girl gets banished to the depths of hell. Even though both may be at fault. While there may have been some women who do get out of these scandals, that's the minority.
I find it a bit hard to understand and see why this kind of thing keeps happening over and over again despite the painful examples seen so far.
My biggest wish now is that "Caster" will not be affected because of what happened. I'm sure more people will be tuning in from now on but most likely, it's out of curiousity to see how Nagano and Kim interact on screen after the scandal. That's a shame though because the drama potentially can do well on its own merit.
I'm also curious, how would Oguri Shun react to this since he is the CEO of Tanaka's agency?
