Photo/Illutration Fuji Television Network Inc.’s headquarters in Tokyo’s Minato Ward on March 31 (Yasumasa Kikuchi)

A former Fuji TV announcer said she was relieved by a third-party committee’s report that acknowledged she suffered sexual violence by entertainer Masahiro Nakai but said parts of the report made her feel “inconsolable.”

In a statement issued through her attorney on April 1, the woman said she feels somewhat vindicated by the report.

“Since this case was reported in weekly magazines and others last December, I have been subjected to many untrue statements and severe slander on the internet and elsewhere, so I honestly feel relieved that the third-party committee’s investigation report was released yesterday and its views expressed,” she said.

The committee, set up by Fuji Television Network Inc. and its parent company, Fuji Media Holdings Inc., said in its report released on March 31 that not only did Nakai sexually assault the announcer in June 2023, but the broadcaster compounded her pain and suffering with its insensitive response to Nakai’s actions.

“I would like to express my respect to the members of the third-party committee for their efforts to understand the facts of this case, including its background, and to analyze its causes, despite the extremely short time frame and the restrictions on gathering information from the parties involved due to confidentiality obligations,” the woman said.

The report said the Fuji TV announcer was invited by a senior executive in the company's programming department to attend a dinner party with Nakai and several other people in May 2023.

Two days later, on June 2, she was sexually assaulted at a dinner party attended only by Nakai and herself.

The report determined that the assault occurred “as an extension of work,” reflecting the tolerance for sexual harassment at Fuji TV.

The woman said some of the information in the report came as a surprise.

“There are many facts that I learned for the first time in this investigation report, such as the communication between Mr. Nakai and Mr. B, who was the head of the programming department, after this incident, and the responses of Fuji TV’s then President Minato and others, and I am once again feeling inconsolable,” she said.

“The damage I have suffered will never go away, and what I have lost will never be recovered,” she continued. “I sincerely hope that this will never happen again, not only in the media and entertainment industry, but in society as a whole.”

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