J-pop star and former Smap leader Masahiro Nakai retires after sexual misconduct allegations

Masahiro Nakai was the leader of Smap that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the boy band’s nearly 30 years of fame. PHOTO: AFP

UPDATED Jan 23, 2025, 04:18 PM

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

Nakai’s announcement comes after now-defunct boy band empire Johnny & Associates admitted in 2023 that its late founder Johnny Kitagawa for decades sexually assaulted teenage boys and young men.

Nakai, 52, was the leader of the now-disbanded Smap – part of Johnny & Associates’s lucrative stable – that swept the charts in Japan and across Asia during the boy band’s nearly 30 years of fame.

Reports emerged in December that Nakai, who since the demise of Smap has become a successful TV host, had paid an unnamed woman a lump sum of 90 million yen (S$780,000).

The allegations concern a 2023 encounter with the woman that leading tabloid magazine Shukan Bunshun said involved a closed-door setting and a “sexual act against her will”.