Following the exposure of the BBC's pedophilia of the former president of Genesys (now Shintato Entertainment), the Japanese entertainment industry has been hit by another major earthquake.
Recently, the famous Japanese comedy artist "Matsumoto Shi" was exposed to a sex scandal.
The 60-year-old Matsumoto, a member of Yoshimoto Kogyo Brokerage Co., Ltd., is a member of the comedy group "DOWNTOWN" and is popular for his "Never Laugh Series" punishment games.
▲ Matsu Benji
Matsumoto often uses surreal and absurd elements to create jokes, but at the same time, he has also caused controversy because he frequently challenges the common sense and morality of Japanese society.
He once wrote in the book: "When I was young, I also loved to play with women, but after I had a daughter, I cherished her very much. I don't want that to happen, but if my daughter is wheeled by a group of men, it won't be helpless, because I'm the one who has done it all the way. 」
▲Matsumoto's handwritten essay "Parents' Heart"
Everyone thought that this was just another outrageous statement by Matsumoto in order to gain traffic. But what is shocking is that these "past things" in his mouth are actually very likely to be true!
From the end of last year to the beginning of this year, "Weekly Wenchun" continuously broke the news that Matsumoto had sexually assaulted/sexually harassed a number of women.
Everything that broke the news began with a dinner party in 2015.
The dinner was hosted by Matsumoto's junior, "Ozawa Kazukei", and the women who participated did not know that Matsumoto would appear in advance, and their mobile phones were confiscated when they participated.
▲ Ozawa Kazukei
About 3 hours after the party went on, Kazukei Ozawa announced a game: men and women were divided into 3 groups and spent time in the hotel's living room, bathroom, and bedroom.
Victim Woman A entered the bedroom and met Matsumoto in the room.
▲ The hotel room where the incident occurred was priced at 300,000 yen per night
Matsumoto came up and kissed her directly, then took off the clothes of victim woman A, and said things like "give birth to my child", and finally forcibly ejaculated in her mouth.
Although Woman A strongly resisted at the time, she was still in a trance (PTSD) afterwards, and even thought that it was her own problem for a while, so she expressed her gratitude to Ozawa for arranging the dinner.
▲ Screenshot of the LINE chat between victim woman A and Ozawa
But it was this line that became a lifeline that Matsumoto wanted to grasp.
Matsumoto responded, "I don't remember such a thing," and his agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo, issued a statement on the day of the magazine's release, saying, "There is no such thing."
On the 8th of this month, Matsumoto urgently announced the cessation of all performing arts activities because of the unfounded accusations of sexual assault that had a bad impact on himself and his employer, and he is now preparing to go to court against Wenchun Weekly.
However, according to the follow-up revelations of Wenchun Weekly, victims B and C have appeared one after another to make accusations, and it is not impossible for this big brother-level joker to be hammered for suspected sexual assault.
In recent years, there has been a growing focus on comprehensive sexuality education in Japan, and sexual assault by powerful people in society has become a social problem.
With the fermentation of the Genesys sexual assault incident, the Japanese entertainment industry seems to have begun to turn around, actively banning all artists involved in sexual assault and sexual harassment. Many advertising sponsors are quite sensitive to the artists involved.
At present, one of the programs hosted by Matsu himself has been removed by the advertising sponsor.
Ironically, NHK has done several episodes on the issue after the Genesys sex scandal broke out this year. One of the hosts invited at that time was Matsumoto himself.