Last month, Shukan Bunshun magazine published an article in which two women alleged that 60-year-old comedian Hitoshi Matsumoto forced them to have non-consensual sex at private parties at a Tokyo hotel in 2015.
I will fight" as the allegations are "baseless," the comedic actor wrote on X. His agency announced Monday that he was suspending all of his shows to focus on his defense.
The magazine was one of the first Japanese publications to report on a sexual abuse scandal that rocked Japan's entertainment industry early last year.
The country's leading boy-band agency, Johnny and Associates, admitted in September that its late founder had for decades sexually abused young recruits.
The global #MeToo movement has been slow to gain momentum in Japan, where many victims are said to be too frightened to dare to come forward. However, a few cases that have recently hit the headlines seem to have sparked a growing awareness.