A clip from a Japanese variety show, filmed 13 years ago, is racing around X again. It has now pulled in more than 56 million views and set off fresh criticism in Japan and abroad. The reaction has gotten so heated that some users are openly saying the performer should never be on television again.
The video came from a Fuji Television program broadcast in 2013. Back then, Japan’s Broadcasting Ethics & Program Improvement Organization, or BPO, had already examined the segment and published its findings. But that background is missing from the short clip now spreading online.
Footage came from a long-running Fuji TV variety show
Shueisha Online reported that the clip was taken from Fuji TV’s long-running variety show Mecha-Mecha Iketeru (Very Very Cool). The program ended in 2018.
The X post pushing the clip described it as a "violent video." Users overseas then started asking whether this kind of conduct was normal in Japan. And once reposts started stacking up, the clip turned into a much wider public argument.
The clip came from the 2013 "FNS 27-Hour TV" special
The edited video was cut from the "Bakuretsu Otosan" segment in the Aug. 3, 2013 broadcast of FNS 27-Hour TV. In that recurring bit, Koji Kato played a short-fused father named Tatsuo Kato, a 48-year-old character. The setup was simple: guests ate sukiyaki and chatted, and if they said the wrong thing, the father character would "punish" them with pro wrestling moves.
The version now going around is just over 10 seconds long. It shows Kato grabbing the legs of an AKB48 member while she is on the floor, repeatedly pulling them apart as people nearby cheer. Then he lifts and spins her several times, throws her into water, and kicks her in the face. The report said AKB was an extremely popular idol group at the time.
The segment was already controversial in 2013
This blowup is not new. After the program aired, BPO got a large number of viewer complaints. Its youth committee decided on Sept. 3, 2013 to review the segment, then published its conclusion in October.
The committee did not mince words in writing: "Stepping on a person’s face concerns human dignity." It also faulted the production side for failing to view the segment from the standpoint of female and child viewers.
Fuji TV said at the time that the scene was part of a "wrestling skit" and that the performers understood the role setup. But the broadcaster later admitted there was a large gap between that shared understanding and how viewers actually felt watching it.
The short clip spread without the context of the full segment
Shueisha Online said that as reposts kept multiplying, points like "it aired in 2013," "Kato was acting as a stubborn father character," and "the segment was a skit with a complete beginning and end" were slowly stripped out.
The report said the full version ended with the father character wearing himself out and collapsing, after which his family messed with him in return. That part did not make it into the short clip that spread on social media.
Kato also revisited the segment in 2020 on a radio program hosted by Nobuyuki Sakuma. He said the project kept being pushed further and got "more and more intense," to the point that he felt "everything went numb." He added, "I don’t really think the old days were better." That later reflection is also absent from the version now circulating online.
The report said that once both the setup and the aftermath were removed, viewers had very little to go on when trying to judge whether they were seeing a performance or what they took to be someone’s real personality.
Backlash spread beyond the show itself
As the clip circulated again, criticism of Kato came roaring back too. In Japan, comments included demands that he not appear on television again, claims that his "true nature hasn’t changed," and calls for the producers and executives involved at the time to resign.
Reaction overseas included comments such as "crazy and disgusting," "Is this normal in Japan?" and "The way this country treats women is beyond words." The report said the criticism had widened from a single variety segment to Japan as a whole.
Why the controversy flared up again
As for why a 13-year-old clip is getting attention right now, the report said it was reuploaded in a 10-second cut and has racked up more than 56 million views on X. Shueisha Online said the more often it gets reposted, the more completely the details about the 2013 broadcast date and the role-play premise vanish, while posts designed to maximize exposure keep appearing.
On BPO’s response at the time: its youth committee decided on Sept. 3, 2013 to review the segment and released its conclusion on Oct. 22, 2013, saying that stepping on a person’s face concerns human dignity. Fuji TV kept saying the scene was a wrestling skit, but also admitted there was a large perception gap with viewers.