Matsumoto Hitoshi's scandal emptied his shows of sponsors in four weeks

What happened

Why it happened

• The suspension announcement, not any finding, was the trigger — every sponsor's stated reason was 'the reports' and 'the announcement', because no verdict existed yet.
• The market's first verdict came on the first broadcast: 人志松本の酒のツマミになる話 aired on 29 December and lost Asahi Beer, Suntory and Acom from its credits that same night.
• The identical formula phrase — 'an overall judgment based on the reports' — across four sponsors shows a market converging on one safe line: nobody wanted to be the last name still attached.
• Kura Sushi's swap shows how a campaign calendar forces the decision: the Downtown commercial was replaced before it ever aired, three weeks after the report.

Aftermath

Matsumoto filed a defamation suit against Weekly Bunshun's publisher Bungeishunju at the Tokyo District Court on 22 January 2024, saying he was suspending activities to focus on the lawsuit. The Osaka-Kansai Expo suspended his ambassadorship on 9 January; Governor Yoshimura said a decision would come once the facts were clarified. He returned in November 2025 on his agency's streaming service DOWNTOWN+, and his first new TV commercial — for Takasu Clinic — aired on 1 March 2026. The sponsors who left in 2023–24 did not return.