Television personality Masahiro Nakai made an appearance as a "surprise guest" on the March 10 installment of Nippon TV's law-related variety show, "Gyoretsu no Dekiru Horitsu Sodanjo" (“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 Cyzo Woman, 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.