A growing number of companies are suspending their ads on Fuji Television, or even asking the firm to suspend the airing of their sponsored programs.

This follows magazine reports that a Fuji TV employee had a role in a scandal involving TV personality Nakai Masahiro and a woman.

Fuji TV is a prominent Japanese broadcaster. Nakai is best known as a member of the disbanded pop idol group, SMAP. The scandal surfaced last month when weekly magazines reported Nakai got into what was described as "trouble" with a woman in 2023, and paid her settlement money.

On Tuesday, one of Japan's leading food companies, Kikkoman, said it had asked Fuji Television to suspend the airing of a program that the company had sponsored.

Kikkoman says it reached the decision based on a comprehensive analysis of how Fuji Television has dealt with the scandal involving Nakai.

The president of Nippon Cultural Broadcasting announced Tuesday he had asked Fuji Media Holdings, the parent company of Fuji Television, to convene an emergency board meeting.

Saito Kiyoto serves as an outside member of the board at Fuji Media Holdings. He said one of the board's roles is to monitor and ensure corporate governance functions properly.

Several other broadcasters, including TBS and Nippon TV, said this week that they were launching investigations into whether similar incidents might have taken place.