This undated file photo released by Jiji Press on Jan. 20, 2025, shows Masahiro Nakai, a former member of the J-Pop boy band sensation SMAP and a celebrity television host, in Tokyo. Japanese media announced on Jan. 23, 2025, that the J-pop star would retire after sex misconduct allegations. Nakai, one of Japan’s biggest boy band stars and a celebrity television host lost several of his shows on Japanese TV this month following media reports he had paid a large financial settlement to an alleged victim. Image: Jiji Press/AFP/Japan Out
One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, announced his retirement Thursday, Jan. 23, over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry.
Nakai’s announcement comes after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder Johnny Kitagawa for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men.
Nakai was a member of the now-disbanded SMAP — part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable — that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the band’s nearly 30 years of fame.
Reports emerged last month that Nakai, 52, who since the demise of SMAP has become a successful television host, had paid an unnamed woman a lump sum of 90 million yen ($570,000).
The allegations concern a 2023 encounter with the woman that leading tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun said involved a closed-door setting and a “sexual act against her will.”
This month, Fuji Television suspended a weekly show hosted by Nakai, while other major networks also dropped the presenter.
On Thursday, local media quoted a statement from Nakai to his paid fan club saying he was stepping back from show business altogether.
Nakai said he had “completed all discussions with TV stations, radio broadcasters, and sponsors regarding my termination, cancellation, removal, and contract annulment,” the Mainichi newspaper said.
“I will continue to face up to all problems sincerely and respond in a wholehearted manner. I alone am responsible for everything,” Nakai reportedly said.
AFP was not immediately able to confirm the announcement with Nakai’s agency, and the star’s website was overwhelmed with visitors.
‘Outraged’
Nakai issued a statement published in local media earlier this month apologizing for “causing trouble” and saying some of what had been reported was “different from the facts.”
He said then he had been quiet on the matter so far due to confidentiality obligations but acknowledged that a settlement had been reached “through the agents of both sides.”
This file picture taken on Dec. 30, 2015, shows Japanese boy band SMAP members (left to right) Masahiro Nakai, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, Shingo Katori, Goro Inagaki and Takuya Kimura in Tokyo. Image: Jiji Press/AFP/Japan Out
Fuji Television has also come under fire over its handling of the affair, with dozens of top brands including Toyota and McDonald’s pulling their adverts from the broadcaster. On Thursday its shares were down 7.8 percent.
Shukan Bunshun and other outlets have alleged a Fuji TV executive was involved in organizing Nakai’s meeting with the woman.
Fuji TV has denied those claims but said last week it was probing the matter after a US activist investor said it was “outraged” by the company’s lack of transparency.
Fuji’s president Koichi Minato held a press conference on Friday but declined to discuss details of the allegation.
The news conference drew additional criticism because only a small number of media were invited and no video was allowed.
Minato also drew ire by only announcing an internal probe to be carried out by a committee that was yet to be formed.
Other TV channels have announced their own investigations into whether similar events between celebrities and women had been organized.
On Tuesday Nippon TV said that it would look into “whether there were any ‘inappropriate sexual contact during meals, etc.’ at production sites and elsewhere.”
TV Asahi on Wednesday said it has conducted interviews and concluded there were no instances of “inappropriate conduct”.
Denunciations
Music mogul Kitagawa, who died aged 87 in 2019, had for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men seeking stardom, his agency finally acknowledged in 2023.
Allegations about Kitagawa swirled for decades but it was not until that year that they ignited calls for compensation following a BBC documentary and denunciations by victims.
Japan’s showbiz industry was then rocked by another bombshell sexual assault scandal involving Hitoshi Matsumoto, one of the country’s most popular comedians.