Downfall of Japanese TV’s girl next door highlights wider industry sexism
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/08/downfall-japan-tv-becky-industry-sexism
While the 31-year-old ponders the sudden withdrawal of TV appearances, commercial endorsements and her own radio programme, she may be asking herself why she has been singled out for media vitriol while her alleged lover, a pop singer, carries on, his career apparently unaffected.
Her crime, it appears, was to break the steadfast rule that requires young female celebrities in Japan not only to entertain, but to remain morally unimpeachable.
Within weeks of a magazine breaking news of her alleged affair with Enon Kawatani, a 27-year-old singer in the band Gesu no Kiwani Otome, her employers ripped up contracts, reportedly at the behest of her own management agency, Sun Music.