Fuji Television is expected to set up an independent committee to investigate the scandal. Appearances ... in the 1990s as the leader of Japanese boy band SMAP, one of Asia's most successful ...

Fuji Television Network Inc. and its parent company have established a third-party panel based on guidelines of the Japan Federation ... The focus of the scandal, however, has already outgrown ...

The scandal centers on Masahiro Nakai, a former leader of Japan’s once-hugely popular boy band SMAP, and his costly settlement with a woman over the alleged sex assault at a 2023 dinner party.

The scandal, which first broke in December through Japanese magazine exposés ... Associates once managed Nakai’s mega-popular boy band SMAP. Nakai announced his retirement from show business ...

The scandal stems from reports that ... a five-member singing and dancing male band, which debuted in 1988 and quickly surged to stardom in Japan and across Asia until it was disbanded in 2016.