Television personality Masahiro Nakai made an appearance as a ¡°surprise guest¡± on the March 10 installment of Nippon TV¡¯s law-related variety show, ¡±¡± (¡°Line-up Law Office¡±). Earlier, guest Koji Kato had related an anecdote featuring Shingo Katori, Nakai¡¯s former associate in the idol group SMAP, which disbanded in 2016. Nakai liked the story, referring to Katori affectionately as ¡°Shingo-chan.¡±

It was hardly a big deal but, according to the online news blog , the exchange shocked a number of media people. SMAP called it quits when three of its five members, including Katori, decided to leave the company that created them, Johnny & Associates, one of Japan¡¯s most powerful talent agencies. Nakai remained. Industry practice says that when someone quits an agency for any reason, they are informally blackballed by media entities, which means their name shouldn¡¯t be mentioned on the air.

Cyzo Woman wanted to know why this form of institutionalized snubbing was not in force at Nippon TV that day. A reporter for a sports tabloid said that Kato is the host of Nippon TV¡¯s morning show ¡°Sukkiri,¡± and that, in November 2017, he complained about his employer¡¯s treatment of the SMAP members who left Johnny¡¯s. They had appeared at an awards ceremony covered by ¡°Sukkiri,¡± but the clip with their image contained no indication of who they were in the form of text superimposed on the screen. It was almost as if they didn¡¯t exist. The writer of the Cyzo Woman article suggested that Nippon TV might have regretted this decision, the implication being that when Katori¡¯s name came up naturally in conversation on ¡°Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo,¡± the producers opted not to edit it out.