Did the Japanese government deliberately tarnish comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto's career with a tabloid article to silence him? No, that's not true: The reporter who exposed Matsumoto has also revealed scandals implicating government officials.
The claim appeared on TikTok (archived here) by @user70631290659282 on January 22, 2024. The video depicts a person standing outside a train station protesting Matsumoto's scandal. The captions (translated from Japanese to English by Lead Stories staff) read:
Hitoshi Matsumoto has constantly raised objections to government policy. Was Matsumoto fired because his voice and influence posed a threat [to the government]? #behind a scandal there is the government's evil deeds #wide na show #unexplained expenditure #against emergency act reform #against constitutional amendment
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Thu Jan 25 22:26:53 2024 UTC)
A Google search conducted by Lead Stories on January 28, 2024, (archived here), with the following keywords: "government AND paid Bunshun AND article on Hitoshi Matsumoto" did not yield any report to corroborate such a claim.
It is unlikely that the Japanese government paid Weekly Bunshun, a Japanese tabloid, to publish the article (archived here) about Matsumoto's alleged sexual assault, since the author of the exposé, Hiroaki Suzuki, stated in an interview (archived here) that they extensively covered the secret affairs of government officials as well. That included allegations of extramarital affairs involving former House of Representatives member Shiori Yamao (archived here), he said (as translated):
Whenever a celebrity scandal comes out, there will always be conspiracy theories buzzing on the internet ... When I was a reporter for Bunshun scooping stories on famous idols and celebrities, I would come across conspiracy theories, but I would like to deny this out loud and say, '1000% not true.'
Additionally, Matsumoto has issued an official press release (archived here) announcing a hiatus from his entertainment activities, claiming that he had thought about a hiatus before the allegations against him came out. Although Matsumoto had denied the accusations and filed a lawsuit against Weekly Bunshun for defamation (archived here), the Weekly Bunshun has doubled down on their initial exposé (archived here), stating it would write follow-ups on the victims who accused Matsumoto of sexual assault.
