Masahiro Nakai, one of Japan's top TV hosts and a former pop star, says he is retiring to take responsibility over sexual assault allegations.

The allegations concern a 2023 encounter with a woman that involved a closed-door setting and a “sexual act against her will”. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The 52-year-old former SMAP member said his contracts had been wound up, and that negotiations with sponsors were in progress.

One of Japan’s biggest pop stars and best-known TV hosts, Masahiro Nakai, announced his retirement Thursday, Jan. 23, over sexual misconduct allegations, reports said, in the latest scandal to rock Japan’s entertainment industry.

One of Japan's best-known pop stars and TV hosts announced his retirement Thursday after sexual misconduct allegations, in the latest scandal to rock the country's entertainment industry. Japan's showbiz industry was then rocked by another bombshell sexual assault scandal involving Hitoshi Matsumoto,

J-Pop star Masahiro Nakai retires amid sexual misconduct allegations. Brands and TV networks sever ties, triggering industry fallout.

Observers say the former boy band member's fall from grace echoes music mogul Johnny Kitagawa's decades of sexual abuse Japan's Fuji Television Network has hired external lawyers to investigate a snowballing sex scandal surrounding pop star-turned-TV celebrity Masahiro Nakai,

One of the most popular faces in Japan, TV host and popstar Masahiro Nakai, has announced his retirement amid sexual assault allegations that has rocked the country's entertainment industry. Nakai was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a 2023 dinner party held by the staff of Fuji Television.