CODE IN TOKYO

Everyone Was “Right,” Yet Everything Fell Apart: What a TV Drama Dispute Reveals About Compliance

A Dispute in Which Everyone Has a Point

A recent dispute involving an actor, an actress, and a Japanese television network has attracted considerable attention.

When I first saw the news, I assumed it was a straightforward case of sexual harassment.

The actress reportedly had past trauma and had made it clear that she did not want to be touched by male co-stars. Despite that condition, the actor improvised during filming and touched her chin.

Under those circumstances, it was understandable that the incident would be treated as sexual harassment.

As more details emerged, however, the situation became less clear-cut.

The actor’s side said that he had never been informed of the restriction. The focus then shifted from the physical contact itself to the actor’s subsequent lecture to the actress, which was described as workplace bullying and an abuse of power.

What had initially been presented as sexual harassment was now also being discussed as a power-harassment issue.

Critics also pointed to scenes in the actress’s previous work in which she had close physical contact with younger male actors. This led some people to claim that her objection was not to physical contact in general, but merely to being touched by an older actor. The later emphasis on power harassment was therefore perceived by some as an attempt to deflect that criticism.

Whether that interpretation is fair is another question. But to the public, it looked like the grounds for the complaint had changed after the fact. The actress consequently became the target of intense criticism.

The striking thing about this dispute is that each party’s position makes sense when viewed in isolation.

The actress had stated in advance that being touched by male actors was unacceptable. When the actor suddenly touched her chin during an improvised moment, it was natural for her to feel that an agreed condition had been violated.

The actor, meanwhile, reportedly knew nothing about the restriction. He was playing her husband and touched her chin in the flow of the performance. If that action was suddenly treated as sexual harassment, his reaction would understandably be, “No one told me.”

His subsequent lecture may also have been intended, from his perspective, as a discussion about acting.

“If your restrictions prevent you from responding to improvisation, perhaps this profession is difficult for you.”

Whatever one thinks about his wording or how long the lecture lasted, that opinion is not entirely surprising coming from someone with many years of acting experience. He probably did not believe that he was abusing his position.

The production team and the agencies had their own rationale as well. They may have worried that telling the actor about the restriction would narrow the range of possible performances and affect the quality of the drama. That reasoning is understandable from a production standpoint.

Finally, there was the network’s compliance response. Once allegations of sexual harassment and workplace bullying had been raised, the network could not simply ask everyone to talk it out and move on. It had sponsors to consider, along with the risk of a backlash on social media.

The network therefore issued the actor a severe warning and removed him from another drama. The production at the center of the dispute had already finished filming. From the standpoint of corporate risk management, that response also made sense.

Everyone was right in their own way.

And everyone ended up worse off.

The Critical Failure Was the Lack of Communication

What I find most puzzling is why the actress’s restriction was not communicated to the actor.

No physical contact from male actors. A role as a married couple.

Those two conditions clearly required coordination before filming began.

If the information was withheld to avoid limiting the performance, that was an extremely risky decision.

An actor who knows nothing about the restriction will perform normally. The actress will feel that her boundary has been violated. Conflict is the predictable result.

From the actor’s point of view, it was as if he had suddenly been penalized under a rule he had never been told existed. It is not surprising that someone might become angry in that situation.

That anger then led to a lecture, which in turn became a power-harassment allegation.

It was a perfect chain reaction.

Why the Shift From Sexual Harassment to Power Harassment Caused a Backlash

I do not think the actress faced such intense criticism simply because people saw her as demanding.

The public’s understanding of the issue changed midway through the story.

At first, the story was that an actor had touched an actress’s chin without permission. It was framed as sexual harassment.

Then the actor’s side said that he had never been informed of her restriction. The focus subsequently became not the contact itself, but the lecture that followed and whether it constituted an abuse of power.

To some observers, this looked like a new justification had been introduced after the original one became less convincing.

The lecture may, of course, genuinely have been severe. I was not there, so I cannot know.

But public opinion is not a court. It does not patiently examine every fact before reaching a verdict. The moment people believe that the reason for a complaint has changed after the fact, trust can disappear rapidly.

As a result, the actress—who had originally been the person whose stated boundary was crossed—is now being criticized as difficult and troublesome to work with.

That is a bitterly ironic outcome.

When Compliance Leaves Everyone Worse Off

The actor was effectively shut out by the network. The actress was attacked by the public. The network’s response was criticized, and the drama itself acquired an unwanted controversy.

No one benefited.

Cases like this reveal a frightening side of compliance.

Compliance rules are supposed to protect people. But when organizations become too afraid of violations, they may avoid sharing information that could complicate the work. Then, when a problem occurs, the company protects itself by cutting someone loose.

If the actor had simply been told in advance that physical contact with this actress was prohibited, the dispute probably would never have happened.

Would that have limited the performance?

Perhaps. But that was one of the conditions of her participation.

The production team apparently tried to preserve the quality of the work by withholding the restriction. In the end, the production, the actor, the actress, and the network were all harmed.

Each party acted in a way that seemed reasonable from its own position. Yet the combined result was disastrous.

The most frightening thing about a compliance-driven society may not be bad people breaking the rules.

It may be a situation in which everyone follows the rules and protects themselves while thinking, “I am right”—and, as a result, no one is protected at all.

That is what this dispute made me consider.

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