Pallade Veneta - Probe accuses ex J-pop star Nakai of sexual assault

A leading Japanese tabloid magazine reported in December that Fuji TV's celebrity presenter Masahiro Nakai had performed a sexual act without a woman's consent.

The accusations led to Nakai being dropped from his shows on multiple networks as well as a mass exit of advertisers from Fuji TV and the resignation of the private channel's bosses.

No legal charges have been brought against Nakai, but an independent probe commissioned by Fuji TV to discern what happened reported its findings on Monday.

"We concluded that the woman was sexually assaulted by Nakai," lawyer Akira Takeuchi, who heads the panel, told reporters.

"We also think what happened was not a private matter between two people, but an extension of work," Takeuchi added.

The 52-year-old Nakai, who was interviewed during the probe, reportedly paid the woman 90 million yen ($570,000) over the incident in 2023, and the pair signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Nakai -- a former member of the boy band SMAP, which swept charts across Asia in the 1990s and 2000s -- announced his retirement from showbusiness in late January.

"I alone am responsible for everything" and "sincerely apologise", he said at the time.

He had previously issued a statement saying some of what had been reported was "different from the facts".

The panel's 300-page report also said that Fuji TV's handling of the case appeared to be in favour of the superstar and amounted to secondary harassement of the employee.

The woman left the company last year after being temporarily hospitalised, the report said.

It criticised what it described as the practice of Fuji TV to organise social gatherings to which people are invited based on their gender, age and appearance -- namely young female presenters and staff.

"We sincerely apologise to the victim women for the distress they have experienced as a result of the company's inadequate relief measures," President Kenji Shimizu told a news conference on Monday after the probe results.

Shimizu also noted that the woman's "supervisors, from the director to the then president, did not regard it as a human rights issue".

Takeuchi said "Fuji TV didn't learn from two incidents" -- the suicide of a participant from the "Terrace House" reality TV show, and multiple accusations of sexual assault levied at the late founder of the boy band management empire Johnny & Associates.

Johnny & Associates, which has since changed its name, admitted in 2023 that its late founder Johnny Kitagawa had sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men for decades.

L.Guglielmino--PV