An Aug. 16 episode of Tokyo MX's variety show "Hirukyun!" found comedian Ken Horiuchi (better known as Horiken) joining the hosts in the studio. Over the course of his stay, he launched the other TV talent and stage hands into a wall of cardboard boxes, before throwing some at people too (including staff who presumably had nothing to do with the bit). Later, Horiuchi picked up Minami Tanaka and Ahn Mika to perform "cleaning," which involved swinging them by the legs so that their hair worked like a broom or a mop.

This slipped by for a bit, until a user on Twitter expressed their disgust at the segment and shared the offending clips. The topic lit up online, with many condemning the footage as examples of sexual harassment and violence against women. Some registered complaints with Tokyo MX, while one of the prevailing sentiments that emerged on social media was, "Why is this being aired in 2018?"

Horiuchi has been a prominent comedian since the 1990s, and his shtick is that he's an entertainer who can't read a room, often doing awkward (or, more accurately, uncomfortable) things as a result. He has performed countless similarly obnoxious bits in the past, and he's not alone. Physical comedy bordering on abuse has been central to Japanese programming for decades — it fuels the Western perception of Japanese "game shows" — as have actions that would be rightfully labeled "sexual harassment." For a long time, this stuff wasn't questioned — it was all just jokes (and you can find all sorts of YouTube compilations highlighting this).