Network on the Ropes: Fuji TV’s Way Forward in Wake of Nakai Scandal

Society Culture

Takahori Fuyuhiko [Profile]

Former SMAP star Nakai Masahiro’s alleged involvement in sexual misconduct has rocked the entertainment world and Fuji TV in particular. Company executives have stepped down, but Hieda Hisashi, who heads the parent holding company, still clings to power. Can an independent committee find a way out of financial disaster for the broadcaster?

Rights Violations Under Microscope

It all started with an “incident” involving a woman in her twenties and Nakai Masahiro, former member of boy band SMAP (which disbanded in 2016). While Fuji TV’s Chairman Kanō Shūji and CEO Minato Kōichi both stood down on January 27 to take responsibility for the scandal, the fallout showed no sign of abating, and on February 3, American-based Dalton Investments (owner of a 7% stake in the network’s parent, Fuji Media Holdings), demanded the resignation of the parent’s executive managing advisor, the 87-year-old Hieda Hisashi.

According to a series of news reports dating back to December, a Fuji executive is implicated in events that lead to Nakai’s behavior. Furthermore, the victim’s colleagues at Fuji may have failed to act appropriately to protect her rights when informed of the impropriety. In response to these reports, Dalton demanded on January 14 that an independent committee launch an investigation into FMH, citing deficiencies in the corporation’s governance arrangements. At another press conference on January 17, Fuji CEO Minato indicated that the investigation would be led by a committee of external lawyers. The event at which Minato spoke was only open to selected media, video recording was not allowed, and the Fuji top brass refused to answer many questions, all factors that heightened criticism of the network.

All this led over 70 advertisers, including Toyota, to pull their commercials from the network. Amid the fallout, FMH was forced to announce on January 23 that it would establish an independent committee that would be staffed by lawyers that did not have an interest in the case. At another press conference called by Minato on January 27 to announce his resignation, the former boss offered an apology, conceding that the victim’s rights might have been violated and that not enough had been done to help her.

Fuji TV Chair Kanō Shūji (far right), Fuji TV CEO Minato Kōichi, and Fuji TV vice chair Endō Ryūnosuke speak at a marathon 10-hour, “no-holds-barred” press conference on January 27, 2025. (© Jiji)
Fuji TV Chair Kanō Shūji (far right), Fuji TV CEO Minato Kōichi, and Fuji TV vice chair Endō Ryūnosuke speak at a marathon 10-hour, “no-holds-barred” press conference on January 27, 2025. (© Jiji)

How Hieda Clung to Power

There are growing calls from both inside and outside the broadcaster for Hieda Hisashi, who is referred to as the “emperor” of the network, to stand down. This is because it is Hieda who seen as having created Fuji’s corporate culture of neglect for women’s rights—a culture that culminated in the Nakai Masahiro scandal. Deficiencies in the network’s governance arrangements are seen as the result of allowing Hieda to stay on top for over 40 years.

Fuji Media Holdings Executive Managing Advisor Hieda Hisashi. (© Jiji)
Fuji Media Holdings Executive Managing Advisor Hieda Hisashi. (© Jiji)

A senior employee at the network told me: “Hieda is the most powerful person at Fuji. At Fuji Media Holdings, the parent company, he only holds the title of executive managing advisor, and yet he is the one who selects the network’s chairs and CEOs. Fuji’s corporate culture is entirely of Hieda’s making.”

Shimizu Kenji, who produced such hit animations as Dragon Ball and Chibi Maruko-chan, has been appointed replacement CEO.

Another top-ranking employee I talked to reveals that Shimizu had “naturally” been appointed by Hieda, and said that because Shimizu is extremely loyal to Hieda, there will be no reform as long as the new CEO stays in the role.

“Even though Hieda stands to receive 800 million yen in bonuses if he resigns now, he doesn’t have the slightest intention of resigning. For him, it’s not about the money. He doesn’t want to give up Fuji and FMH,” explains my source.

While the corporation’s internal trade union demanded that Hieda attend the January 27 press conference, he did not make a showing. According to Chair Kanō Shūji, the reason he did not attend the press conference is that he does not have executive powers and was not involved in the Nakai scandal. However, since standing down as chair and being appointed executive managing advisor in 2017, Hieda has now fired five CEOs over issues including the current scandal, as well as poor ratings. Meanwhile, he has denied any liability on the grounds that he is only an “advisor.” This is the sleight of logic that has enabled him to stay in power for so long.

Hieda is also the head of 78 companies, 4 corporations, and 3 art galleries, and presides over the 13,000 staff employed by the Fuji Sankei Group. The octogenarian is unmistakably FMH’s commander-in-chief.

Spurious Justifications from the CEO

Let us now revisit the Nakai Masahiro scandal and Fuji’s response.

Tabloids Josei Seven, Sponichi, and Shūkan Bunshun first reported in December that Nakai was involved with an incident with a woman he invited to a meal in June 2023, over which Nakai paid around ¥90 million in settlement. While Nakai has not commented on whether the incident involved sexual abuse, citing the confidentiality agreement that was part of the settlement, he admitted to wrongdoing and apologized. Nakai was pulled from his regular commercial TV shows, and episodes in which he appeared that had already been filmed were not broadcast. Eventually, Nakai retired from show business on January 23, 2025.

Regarding Fuji’s involvement, the December 19, 2024, issue of Josei Seven reported that everything started when a Fuji executive invited Nakai and the woman to dinner. It was reported that the executive then cancelled his plans to attend, leaving Nakai alone with the woman. This article was also quoted in the December 26 edition of Shūkan Bunshun.

The day after the article came out, December 27, Fuji denied that any of its staff had been involved in organizing the dinner. Then, on January 6, Shūkan Bunshun reported that it was in fact Nakai who invited the woman to dinner on the day of the incident. While revising its initial account of events, the tabloid maintained that the incident was “unmistakably a result of an earlier dinner arranged by the executive,” adding that the woman was later diagnosed with PTSD and required hospitalization.

At the January 27 press conference, CEO Minato Kōichi said that he learned of the incident in August 2023. However, he did not inform his company’s compliance department, and Fuji did not actively ask Nakai about the incident either.

Minato also failed to cancel Nakai’s chat show, Matsumo to Nakai. At the press conference, Minato and the head of Fuji’s public relations division repeatedly justified this decision, saying it was out of consideration of the victim’s wishes to return to work without anyone finding out about the incident. In the interests of the health of the victim, they asserted, they carefully considered when to take Nakai’s show off the air—an abrupt cancellation would fuel speculation—and informed Nakai in November that the show would be cancelled (initially, cancellation was scheduled for March 2025). However, Nakai’s copresenter Matsumoto Hitoshi was taken off the roster in January 2024, also over reports of sexual impropriety, a fact that gave Fuji an opportunity to end Nakai’s involvement in a natural-seeming manner. And yet, the network continued to broadcast Nakai’s show under the name Dareka to Nakai. Minato’s account of events leaves doubts.

If It’s Not Fun . . .

When discussing the latest scandal, some point to Fuji’s practice of using young female anchors and other female employees to entertain celebrities and clients. Many in the commercial broadcasting industry who I approached for comment confirmed that Fuji’s practice of entertaining celebrities, which is said to be even more excessive than that of its competitors, began in the late 1980s when Minato was directing comedy shows. This was a time when Hieda, then programming director and CEO, grew Fuji into Japan’s top-rating and highest-earning network under the slogan, “If it’s not fun, it’s not Fuji TV.” In the process, he created a corporate culture that lives on today. During, and immediately after, Japan’s asset bubble when Minato was heavily involved on the production side, staff spent money like it was water at high-end Roppongi restaurants so that the celebrities who appeared on their shows could party like there was no tomorrow.

The Fuji of today, however, can no longer afford to spend like this. As one veteran producer from rival network TBS surmises, “I believe that the executive at the center of the latest scandal inherited Minato’s culture of excess, despite the fact that the network is no longer rich. He threw women at Nakai in an attempt to win his interest. Throwing money and women at celebrities is Fuji’s trademark. This would never happen at another broadcaster.”

Fuji TV Headquarters, taken on January 27, 2025, Tokyo. (© Reuters)
Fuji TV Headquarters, taken on January 27, 2025, Tokyo. (© Reuters)

Fuji Triumphant Over Retraction

The January 30 issue of Shūkan Bunshun carried an official correction of earlier reports regarding events on the day of the incident—which had been posted online two days earlier—along with an apology. However, based on the victim’s testimony, the tabloid reported that “this does not change the fact that the executive was involved in the incident.”

Some at Fuji were triumphant, saying that they could now fight back at the tabloid. Presenters on a current affairs show broadcast by Fuji affiliate and FMH subsidiary Kansai TV eviscerated Bunshun. Meanwhile, intellectuals close to Fuji and affiliated publishers also called for Bunshun to be taken out of print, even labelling it the “incarnation of evil.”

However, the question being posed in response to the Nakai incident is whether Fuji is a company that stands up for the rights of victims of such crimes. Criticizing Bunshun does nothing to help the broadcaster here. If anything, Fuji came across as defensive, attracting significant criticism. I do not know to what extent Fuji is behind the bashing of Bunshun, but if this is a case of the media trying to influence public opinion to deflect suspicion from itself, then that is not healthy.

Behind Fuji’s apparent haste to put the Nakai scandal behind it is its poor performance. While once consistently among Japan’s top-rating networks, Fuji now has the lowest ratings and advertising revenue of any major Japanese commercial broadcaster (excluding TV Tokyo, which has a much smaller network). Many in the industry take the view that the underlying reason that the network was slow to respond was its poor ratings. Dareka to Nakai always was a consistent performer in a sea of unsuccessful shows: Minato et al would not have wanted to cancel this cash cow, no matter what Nakai had done. The executive accused of involvement in the scandal was also significantly involved in this show from its very inception.

External Directors Key to Future

So what happens to Fuji now? For a start, the independent committee will chiefly review (1) Fuji employees’ involvement in the incident, (2) action taken after Fuji became aware of the incident, (3) what Fuji has done to improve governance and protect employee rights, and (4) the analysis of the cause of the incident and measures to prevent re-occurrence.

The restructuring of governance, along with initiatives to revamp the organization to rebuild trust, are also a focus. The corporation’s seven external directors have a key role to play here. It was on the advice of these external directors that, on January 30, FMH put together a subcommittee under the auspices of the Board of Directors to revamp its operations, on which all seven external directors will sit. The committee will evaluate, and make proposals about, reform.

The second Fuji executive I talked to says that while some in the organization are completely unsuitable to lead the reform process because of their proximity to Hieda, he believes that Saitō Kiyoto of Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, which holds a 3% stake in FMH, and Shimatani Yoshishige of Tōhō, which has an 8% stake, will both take action. Both individuals have called for reform in the past, and it is possible that they will lead an effort to call for Hieda’s resignation. This is because were their significant stakes in FMH to lose their value, it would create a major issue of liability, says the executive.

People are also saying that this time Hieda himself will accept that he has to step down. Fuji has downwardly revised its projection for revenue from broadcasting for the year to March 2025 by ¥23.3 billion, as now that its sponsors have pulled their ads, it is no longer billing for advertising. This alone is ample reason to fire Hieda and the rest of the board. By the time of Fuji’s June general shareholders’ meeting, the fate of both the network and Hieda will have been sealed.

(Originally published in Japanese. Banner photo: A giant Tokyo monitor breaks the news of Nakai Masahiro’s departure from show business on January 23, 2025. © Kyōdō.)

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    Takahori FuyuhikoView article list

    Broadcasting columnist and journalist. Was an assistant director at a broadcasting station as a university student. After joining the Sports Nippon Shimbun in 1990, he became a member of the broadcasting reporters’ club, writing news articles covering the broadcasting world, reviewing television dramas, and interviewing people in the industry. In 2010, he became deputy editor at Sunday Mainichi, and he went freelance in 2019.

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