A popular Japanese comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto, who has denied sexual assault allegations published in a prominent magazine, vowed on Monday to fight the “groundless” accusations. “I’ll fight it” as the allegations are “groundless”, he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. His agency Yoshimoto Kogyo announced Monday that he will suspend performances to focus on the case.

Japan’s Shukan Bunshun magazine last month published a report quoting two women as alleging Matsumoto, now 60, forced them into sexual activities at private parties at a Tokyo upscale hotel in 2015. Matsumoto, “expressed strong will to suspend his activities for the time being, as continuing his entertainment activities would cause a great deal of burden to many more stakeholders and co-stars,” the agency said.

“Matsumoto expressed his strong desire to focus,” on the case, it said in a statement. Last month, the agency which said was considering legal action, said there are “no facts whatsoever” in accusations published by the weekly Shukan Bunshun magazine against Matsumoto. Among the claims, one woman alleged forced oral sex and the other said she was forcibly kissed.

Matsumoto is half of the comedy duo known as Downtown, a household name in Japan. Shukan Bunshun was one of the first publications to report, as long ago as 1999, on a sex abuse scandal that rocked Japan’s entertainment industry earlier last year.

A boy band empire formerly known as Johnny & Associates admitted in September its late founder had sexually abused young recruits over decades, leading to an organizational shake-up. The global #MeToo movement was slow to pick up in Japan, where many victims are said to be too scared to come forward, although a handful of high-profile cases recently forced a reckoning. — AFP