Weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun had known about its partially incorrect reporting over the alleged trouble between TV personality Masahiro Nakai and a woman soon after its Dec. 26 issue was published, but issued a correction only after the publication was criticized by former Osaka Gov. Toru Hashimoto, who is now a well-known TV commentator.

On Thursday, Shukan Bunshun published an editorial from the editor-in-chief apologizing for the inaccuracy and that it had reported follow-up stories based on new findings that the woman was invited by Nakai and not the Fuji TV executive.

“In response to Mr. Hashimoto's suggestion that ‘it is dishonest to overwrite an error so casually,’ we have added a correction note to the article in question on the online version of Shukan Bunshun,” the letter stated.