Nippon Television Network Corp., already reeling from a previous scandal, revealed Tuesday that a Nov. 5 news show contained footage of a bogus lobster catch off the Izu Peninsula in Shizuoka Prefecture.
"The company we commissioned to make the program has admitted to a staged performance," an NTV spokeswoman said.
As part of a special feature on "News Plus One," local fishermen were shown pulling lobsters up in a net.
Although the lobsters were described as rare delicacies, they had actually been bought by staff at local stores.
"Our president has reprimanded the staff in charge of the program," she said. "We hope to take thorough steps to ensure that something like this won't happen again."
The incident follows a recent scandal at NTV in which a producer manipulated viewer ratings by using funds he obtained illicitly.
On Tuesday, TV ratings firm Video Research Ltd. said it will file a damages suit against former NTV producer Masafumi Ando, 41, in January at the earliest, claiming he has harmed the credibility of its viewer surveys.
"We are currently in talks with lawyers, but we are likely to seek tens of millions of yen in damages," a spokesman at Video Research said.
The damages sought would likely cover the cost of changing households that were paid by Ando to watch NTV shows and thereby manipulate viewer ratings.
Ando, who was subsequently fired, used 10.07 million yen to manipulate these ratings.
The former producer paid a credit-research firm to follow employees of Video Research, Japan's only TV ratings firm, and identify households used in its viewer survey.
Details about these households are kept strictly confidential.