Masahiro Nakai sex scandal puts Japan’s entertainment industry in crosshairs

Masahiro Nakai (left) poses with his fellow members of popular Japanese boy band SMAP in 2015. He now faces criticism for sexually abusing a woman and his management’s subsequent attempts to cover it up. - Photo: AFP

TOKYO: Japan’s Fuji Television Network has hired external lawyers to investigate a snowballing sex scandal surrounding pop star-turned-TV celebrity Masahiro Nakai, a case observers say reflects the failure of the country’s entertainment industry to learn from music mogul Johnny Kitagawa’s decades of sexual abuse.

Nakai, his management agency and the broadcaster have displayed “arrogance” in the way they dismissed the issue, one analyst said, noting that it took foreign influence to bring the scandal to light.