Shinsuke Shimada, one of Japan’s top TV personalities,

"LandepNews"

Shinsuke Shimada, one of Japan’s top TV personalities, was forced into retirement this week because somebody discovered that he was associating with gangers:

According to an informed source, Shimada, 55, mentioned a senior member of an organized crime group in cell phone text messages he sent to Jiro Watanabe, 56, a former boxing world super flyweight champion.
Watanabe is now in the process of making a final appeal against a prison sentence handed to him by the Osaka High Court for attempted extortion related to prefloatation shares.
In the messages, sent between June 2005 and June 2007, Shimada expressed his concern for the gang member, who had been arrested by Osaka police on suspicion of obstructing a public tender process and obstructing law enforcement authorities’ attempts to execute their duties.
Shimada also wrote about his gratitude to the gang member for having placed expensive orders at a bar run by Shimada, the source said.

A lot of comments on YouTube video and 2-channel threads express a complete lack of surprise about his ties to the yakuza. The cynical point out that other Japanese celebrities are also associating with mobsters, while some popular comments on YouTube claim that the whole scandal has been manufactured to distract viewers from the DPJ leadership race.

Shinsuke hosted/produced quite a few popular prime time television programs. Here is a chart that shows how he was a major presence on several TV channels:

The scandal has forced the cancellation of all of his programs, leaving holes in the prime time schedules of each of the television networks. It seems other regular programs will be extended into 2-hour specials next week. Future schedules remain uncertain.

Meanwhile, an editorial in the Mainichi is calling on the showbiz world to stop associating with yakuza:

It has been pointed out for some time now that show business has cozy relations with crime syndicates. There is no denying that society had previously tended to overlook such ties. However, relations between entertainers and yakuza are no longer socially permissible. A growing number of talent agencies have worked out rules banning their roster of entertainers from having any contact with yakuza.
Now is the time for show business as a whole to consider measures to ensure that it cuts off any ties with crime syndicates. The whole entertainment world’s ability to clean itself up is being tested.

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