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The chair and head of television at Japan’s Fuji Media Holdings are to step down immediately, as a sexual misconduct investigation into a former entertainment star continues to hammer the reputation of one of the country’s most powerful media empires.
The resignations, along with formal apologies, came at a press conference on Monday, as the company stepped up efforts to draw a line under the crisis and tempt back around 80 major corporations that have pulled all advertising from Fuji TV broadcasts over the past week.
But shareholders, who have condemned governance standards at Fuji, said the news conference and resignations had not reassured them that it had addressed the root of its problems.
Zennor Asset Management, a UK-based fund holding about 1 per cent of the company, said that the resignations were a “welcome first step by the board towards addressing the corporate culture and taking responsibility for the governance failures” that still needed to be addressed.
It added “consideration should be given to bringing in new external senior leadership at the company who are not embedded in the existing culture and can drive the transformation needed to regain trust”.
Kenji Shimizu, the executive now appointed to run the stricken TV unit, said: “Without regaining trust, Fuji Television has no future. With this resolve in mind I intend to work as hard as possible. We will be starting from zero.”
The crisis centres on allegations about one of Japan’s most famous entertainers, Masahiro Nakai, who performed for many years in the country’s pre-eminent boy band before turning to acting and TV hosting. Much of his output was broadcast on Fuji TV, which has built its programming around celebrity variety shows and quizzes.
In December, Japanese tabloids published allegations that Nakai had engaged in sexual misconduct with a female staff member of Fuji at a private dinner organised in June 2023 by another employee of the TV station.
Fuji has not acknowledged that one of its employees was involved in setting up the dinner and has said it “does not tolerate harassment or inappropriate behaviour in any form and is committed to creating a safe and inclusive work environment”.
Nakai, who announced his retirement from entertainment last week and could not be reached for comment on Monday, had previously admitted on his personal website to having had “troubles” with an unnamed woman, and acknowledged that he had paid a settlement.
The resignations of FMH’s chair, Shuji Kano, and the head of Fuji TV, Koichi Minato, follow an unusually vehement backlash by shareholders after the company’s initial efforts to address the scandal highlighted what one investor described as “serious governance shortcomings” and raised suspicions of a cover-up.
Fuji had previously acknowledged it knew of complaints by a female staff member in 2023 but had not fully investigated or reported it. A press conference it convened on January 17 was not open to all media, was not filmed and was heavily criticised in letters sent to the company by two of its biggest shareholders.
In an attempt to calm its most vocal investors, which include the US fund Dalton Investments and see the media conglomerate as ripe for a break-up, Fuji has promised to have the matter investigated by an independent committee of outside lawyers.
Nicholas Benes, chief executive of The Board Director Training Institute of Japan and an expert in Japanese governance, said that while other Japanese companies were making progress, Fuji Media represented the “clubbish old guard”, with a huge 17-member board and only one of its seven outside directors fitting the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s criteria for independence. The average age of all the directors, said Benes, was 72, and one has been a director for 42 years.
“If this is not a board needing major surgery, what qualifies? It is no surprise that its price-book ratio is only 0.48, even after the recent rise on hopes that it might get cleaned up,” said Benes.
The price-to-book ratio measures a company by its market capitalisation against its book value, with any figure under one suggesting its share price is undervaluing it compared to its assets.
