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The story
On September 25, 2026, Fuji Television held a presidential press conference at its headquarters in Odaiba, Tokyo, addressing the harassment issue reported on the set of its April-season drama ‘Husband and Wife Separate Surnames Detective.’ In July, the network had published the results of an investigation by outside lawyers following reports concerning actor Jiro Sato and a co-star, and apologized to both parties. On 5channel threads, some users blamed the party said to have repeatedly made contact despite being told beforehand ‘don’t confront them,’ while others argued the fault lay with the production side and the co-star’s camp for failing to put the prohibited actions in writing before filming. Many posts also expressed doubt about how effective the president’s pledge to ‘work to prevent recurrence’ would actually be.
September 25, 2026, 3:53 PM
Fuji Television held a presidential press conference at the network’s Odaiba, Tokyo headquarters on the 25th, addressing reports of a harassment issue on the set of one of its April-season dramas.
In July, following reports from several weekly magazines, the network published a detailed document based on an outside lawyer’s investigation and findings regarding a series of reports concerning actor Jiro Sato and a co-star involved in its April-season drama ‘Husband and Wife Separate Surnames Detective.’ It apologized to both actors, stating, ‘We apologize for the current situation, which has placed a great burden and emotional strain on both actors.’
Source: hochi.news / Original article here
What people said
The one who went and did it twice anyway after being told not to is 100% in the wrong, if you ask me.
Before we even get to the dressing-room confrontation, the real issue is the producer never set clear rules about what was off-limits during filming beforehand. Though Hashimoto's side didn't communicate things very clearly either.
Couldn't they have just let the talent agencies hash it out between themselves instead of the network awkwardly stepping in?
The mistake was Fuji's producer misreading Hashimoto's side saying 'we'll leave it to you' as 'you have free rein.'
It's basically a threat: 'this is on you now.'
This is one lawyer way overstepping their bounds.
But if you're casting someone who'll use 'it was improv' as an excuse to get handsy, you'd better set the rules beforehand.
In the end it wasn't even something worth making a fuss over.
Just two actors butting heads over acting technique.
Nothing's gotten better since Shimizu took over.
If SoftBank's Kitao or Horie got involved, it'd just turn into another Mizoguchi-type mess.
That's because the outside directors they brought in from outside kept fleeing one after another.
Then why is Fuji apologizing at all?
They even went as far as saying they'll work to prevent it happening again.
Fuji's just airing both of those — not much money actually flows to them from it.
They probably expected to get praised for acting fast, but public opinion turned out way more sympathetic to Sato than they expected.
Turning someone into the villain and blacklisting them isn't 'handling it properly.'
That's just TV brainwashing, plain old opinion manipulation.
Though I do agree it spectacularly backfired.
It's because they tried to use it for a spin-off.
They were too slow to cut ties, and they never should have let the director defend him either.
Places like Yahoo comments are full of old people, so you get a lot of harassment apologists there — the 'don't make a fuss over this' type.
Background and Key Points of This Story
Fuji Television’s current leadership took over after the previous president resigned to take responsibility for the 2024 controversy involving Masahiro Nakai, and this press conference drew attention as another crisis response while the network is still working to rebuild trust. The outside lawyers’ investigation report released in July reportedly found that the underlying issue was ambiguity over what physical contact was acceptable between the two actors playing a married couple — meaning this isn’t a simple, clear-cut case of one-sided harassment. Early reporting framed the story as one party being at fault, but Fuji itself apologized to both actors for the ‘great burden and emotional strain’ placed on them, and has not framed it as the fault of only one side. On the thread, voices blaming the party said to have repeatedly made contact without consent were matched by voices criticizing the production side and the co-star’s camp for failing to put the rules in writing before filming, with some pointing out that the pledge to ‘work to prevent recurrence’ offers no concrete plan.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5channel (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “Fuji President Addresses Harassment Issue on Drama Set, ‘Will Work to Prevent Recurrence’… Trouble Between Jiro Sato and Co-star [Ailuropoda melanoleuca★]“.
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