TV Asahi announced on March 19, 2025, that it had taken disciplinary action against a senior employee over serious misconduct involving financial mismanagement and power harassment towards staff.
The employee in question is a 50-year-old executive director from the Content Creation Department’s 2nd Production Department, responsible for the popular program 'NasD Dai Bouken TV.' Following an internal investigation, the company revealed that between 2019 and January 2025, this executive extravagantly misused company expenses by submitting claims totaling approximately 5.17 million yen. These claims included costs for personal dining and other activities unrelated to business.
In a statement from the company's Public Relations Bureau, it was noted, "The employee in charge made inappropriate expense claims totaling approximately 5.17 million yen for personal meals and other costs." Furthermore, it came to light that as part of the ongoing assessment of the employee’s behavior, multiple staff members reported being subjected to derogatory comments that undermined their personalities, which qualified as power harassment.
The internal report specified, "This behavior indicates a failure in fulfilling management and supervisory responsibilities, which should have prevented such misconduct." It highlighted a concerning lack of checks and a failure in governance that allowed this misconduct to occur without oversight.
As a consequence of these findings, immediate disciplinary actions were implemented. The employee has been demoted and has agreed to refund all improperly claimed expenses in full. In addition to the sanctions against the executive director, the company is also placing managerial responsibility on other executives within the Content Production Department. As such, these supervisors will face salary reductions for their oversight failures.
Moreover, Executive Director Nishi-Arata has volunteered to return 10% of his executive compensation for three months in light of the situation, demonstrating accountability at the executive level.
The company’s leadership took these findings seriously, affirming their commitment to rectifying governance structures to ensure such incidents do not recur. In their official communication, they stated, "We will promptly formulate and implement recurrence prevention measures, strengthen governance, and strive to restore trust." This proactive stance represents a commitment by TV Asahi to not only manage the immediate fallout from this incident but also to build a more accountable and transparent workplace culture.
As details continue to emerge, the spotlight remains on TV Asahi as it navigates the repercussions of this incident. Employees and the public alike are awaiting the effective implementation of new governance measures and the company's dedication to restoring faith in its operations and management practices.
