Nude in Japan

Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, “a member of SMAP, the biggest, best-loved and most successful boy band in Japanese pop history,” is known as “Mr. Jeans Japan” but it seems he prefers his pants off. “What’s wrong with being naked?” Kusanagi is said to have screamed at police officers who arrested him for being drunk and naked in a public park. Kusanagi was “whooping noisily” and cannot remember why he took his clothes off. The case is expected to have a big fallout, since Kusanagi’s image as the “boy next door” is threatened: Toyota and Procter & Gamble have already cancelled ad campaigns with him, while the country’s minister for internal affairs and communications has said he’s “furious” and might drop Kusanagi from a public information campaign.