The impact of Fuji Television Network Inc.'s loss of advertisers over a scandal between a woman and former TV personality Masahiro Nakai has

The spiralling controversy involves Masahiro Nakai, the 52-year-old media personality who was the leader of defunct male idol group Smap, and mainstream broadcaster Fuji Television. It also highlights the growing role that foreign activist shareholders are playing in compelling change in stuffy Japanese boardrooms.

TOKYO (AP) — Masahiro Nakai, one of Japan’s top TV hosts and a former pop star, said Thursday he was retiring to take responsibility over sexual assault allegations that are part of a wave roiling Japan's entertainment industry and have triggered an avalanche of lost advertising at one of the networks where he worked.