Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
Around couple of weeks ago, Shukan Bunshun printed a story in which two women accused comedian Matsumoto Hitoshi of rape/sexual assault. The comedian’s agency, Yoshimoto Kogyo, denied the claim and said they would sue the publication, and they now say Matsumoto is going on hiatus while the legal battle goes on so he can focus on it.
“I would like to go on hiatus as I will not be able to dedicate myself to comedy as I currently do while simultaneously engaging with the trial,” Matsumoto, one half of popular comedy duo “Downtown,” said, according to the entertainment agency.
Matsumoto has expressed his wish to “confront various articles and focus on litigation,” the company said.
He is concerned that if he continues his entertainment activities, he will cause a lot of trouble and burden to many people concerned, according to Yoshimoto Kogyo.
Despite facing legal threats, Bunshun has not backed down. While details on the allegations were difficult to come by before due to them being paywalled, a version is now available to everybody and so are said details.
Allegations continued:•She eventually accepted the invitation, and found herself in a party where the other female guests were, like her, young and working in the entertainment industry.
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) January 5, 2024
•The male guests were Matsumoto, Ozawa, a scriptwriter, and a prominent male celebrity. 3/
Mrs. B says that when she went into the room with Matsumoto, he took off his clothes and tried to make her perform sex acts on him in the bed, saying the "I want you to have my child" line that was included in the Bunshun's 12/27 headlines. 5/
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) January 5, 2024
The article has a second part, in which Mrs. B says that she was repeatedly asked to meet with Ozawa/Matsumoto again, but she refused. She says she had PTSD and felt traumatized whenever she saw Matsumoto on TV or billboards. 7/ https://t.co/kuQDrY5nV4
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) January 5, 2024
The article says that younger comedians like Ozawa ingratiate themselves with Matsumoto by bringing him young women who aspire to enter the entertainment industry: "it's hard for them to refuse outright. If they do refuse, they are deemed 'worthless' by them and discarded." 8/
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) January 5, 2024
Obviously this allegation also implicates comedian Ozawa Kazuhiro as well.
In the meantime, Matsumoto has been trying to win the case in the court of public opinion by highlighting a conveniently-leaked screenshot of one accuser sending him a thank you message.
Comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto has tweeted the leaked screenshot that allegedly shows the woman who accused him of sexual assault sending a "thank you" message after the incident. Here are some translated tweets from netizens who are critical of the leak. https://t.co/qOktWyBhTO https://t.co/B2ABtuYvpA pic.twitter.com/4mGuCbiH27
— Jeffrey J. Hall 🇯🇵🇺🇸 (@mrjeffu) January 5, 2024
As many have pointed out already, that doesn’t mean much considering the power dynamics at play, but for fans of his who want to believe him, it provides enough fodder for them to take his side.
Not gonna pretend to know exactly what happened here, as it’s taken over a week for me to even find a loose summary of what the exact allegations were and it’s even harder to get info on the case when the mainstream media in Japan seems reluctant to cover it. Granted, that’s part of the problem in itself.
