Japan | Boy band star boycotted following sexual allegations

(Tokyo) Major Japanese television channels have distanced themselves from a famous member of a boys band in the 1990s after media reports claimed he paid a woman a large sum of money linked to suspicions of sexual misconduct.

Posted at 6:44 a.m.

Masahiro Nakai, a former member of the hugely popular group SMAP turned TV presenter, allegedly paid a woman $818,000 (90 million yen) to resolve what Japanese media cautiously described as “a sexual problem.”

This would concern a meeting which took place in 2023 without giving further details.

Broadcaster Fuji TV said on Wednesday that the weekly show hosted by Mr. Nakai, 52, was “cancelled for the time being.”

The decision was made following a “full review of the situation and in light of recent information regarding our presenter Nakai”, the channel said on its website.

Similarly, on Tuesday, a weekly entertainment show on Nippon TV co-hosted by Nakai was broadcast without his appearances, which were cut during editing.

Nakai accepted this decision “in principle”, the channel told AFP, adding that “appropriate measures will be taken” regarding the future of the show.

The now-disbanded SMAP Group led sales in Japan and throughout Asia for nearly 30 years.

Contacted by AFP, Masahiro Nakai’s artistic agency was not immediately available for comment.

But she told local media, including the daily Asahi Shimbunthat she was bound by a confidentiality agreement between the parties involved not to discuss details of the case.

The star, however, “never used force or became violent” toward the alleged victim, the agency said.

The scandal comes after the empire of boys bands Johnny & Associates, now defunct – and of which SMAP was long the poster child – admitted in 2023 to allegations of sexual abuse by its late founder.

Music mogul Johnny Kitagawa, who died aged 87 in 2019, had for decades sexually assaulted teenagers and young men seeking fame.