TV networks drop Japan boy band star over sex allegations

Masahiro Nakai in Tokyo in October 2017 | JIJI

by TOMOHIRO OSAKI
January 8, 2025

Major TV networks have distanced themselves from one of Japan's biggest 1990s boy band stars after media reports said he paid a woman a large settlement related to alleged sexual misconduct.

The reports, which emerged last month, said that Masahiro Nakai, a 52-year-old former member of the hugely popular group SMAP, had paid a woman a lump sum of ¥90 million ($570,000).

That was to settle what most Japanese media outlets have cautiously described as "sexual trouble" concerning an encounter that took place in 2023.