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Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho Producer Kenji Shimizu Becomes New Fuji TV President Amidst Scandal

Fuji TV announced in a press conference on Monday that its president Koichi Minato has stepped down, following a scandal centering on former SMAP member and TV host Masahiro Nakai. The new president replacing Minato is Kenji Shimizu, known for being a producer on such anime as Dragon Ball Z, Yu Yu Hakusho, Osomatsu-kun, several Gegege no Kitarō works, Dr. Slump & Arale-chan, and many more.

Fuji Media Holdings Inc., Fuji TV's parent company, also announced the resignation of its chairman Shuji Kano on Monday.

Fuji TV has faced massive backlash over its response and handling of the scandal after it came to light in December.

In December, the Weekly Bunshun magazine reported that Nakai had reached a 90 million yen (about US$580,000) settlement out of court with a woman following an incident of nonconsensual sexual activity in June 2023. The reports stated a Fuji TV programming official was involved in arranging the meal where Nakai met the woman and the incident occurred. Reports also said Minato had allowed Nakai to continue appearing on programs for 18 months even after learning about the incident.

Fuji TV maintained its stance in the press conference on Monday that its employees were not involved in arranging the meeting.

Afterward, there were also reports that senior Fuji TV officials required female TV presenters to attend gatherings to entertain celebrities.

Nakai announced his retirement from the entertainment industry on January 23.

After news of the scandal broke, many companies have since pulled their ads from airing on Fuji TV, or have asked the channel to suspend their sponsored programs.

The incident has caused other channels such as TBS and NTV to state they were launching investigations to see if other similar incidents might have taken place.

Shimizu stated during the press conference on Monday the channel will "never tolerate acts that violate human rights," adding the channel will implement measures to prevent any similar incidents from happening again. Fuji TV will "conduct an objective investigation and verification of the facts," with an independent attorney leading the investigative committee.

Fuji TV has focused on anime programming recently, and the news of Shimizu's appointment has led to public and media speculation of the channel's focus on anime in the future. In December, Fuji TV announced its long-running Noitamina programming block will air at 11:00 p.m. on a nationwide network (the programming block currently airs at 12:55 a.m.) starting in April.

Sources: The Mainichi (link 2), NHK World News (link 2), Oricon, Fuji TV