Veteran actress Atsuko Takahata called a press conference on Aug. 26 to apologize for the actions of her 22-year-old son, who had been arrested several days earlier for sexually assaulting a hotel employee in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, while on location for an acting job. Some media observers mentioned that such press conferences are unique to Japan. American TV personality Dave Spector told The Japan Times that celebrities in the U.S. aren't expected to take responsibility for the misdemeanors of their adult offspring. This is true but misses the point of this particular scandal.

It's an open secret that the children of many Japanese stars get work in show business due to the lobbying efforts of those stars rather than through the children's own efforts or talents, a situation known as nanahikari (seven lights). Everybody understands this situation, and those parents are, realistically speaking, responsible for their children's actions if those children are public figures, because they are the ones who made them so. Nanahikari is especially relevant in Takahata's case because, according to showbiz journalists, she had aggressively pushed her actor son Yuta on producers while ignoring his antisocial proclivities. An NHK employee told the weekly magazine Sunday Mainichi that last year, when Yuta was appearing in NHK's morning serial "Mare," he "made passes" at almost every woman on the set in a disturbingly indiscriminate manner, as if he didn't care what other people thought.

Similarly, when actress Yoshiko Mita's son was arrested for drugs in 1998, she was blamed because she had gotten him acting jobs and he was already infamous for his immature professional attitude. Several years ago, ubiquitous TV emcee Monta Mino quit the business after his son, for whom he secured a high-powered position at the Nippon TV network, was arrested for attempted robbery. Mino's sin of paternal association was compounded by his own on-air modus operandi: He hosted a popular morning news show where he aggressively derided celebrities involved in scandals.