When the leaders of a major Japanese broadcaster stepped down to take responsibility for the botched handling of a sexual assault allegation, it was supposed to be a ritual show of remorse in corporate Japan. Instead, the news conference to announce the resignations turned into a marathon display of social outrage as executives faced a public grilling that lasted 10 hours.

The president and chairman of Fuji Television resigned on Monday night after acknowledging they mishandled an incident in which a star TV host admitted paying hush money to an unnamed woman for an incident that took place in June 2023. The case has plunged the broadcaster into financial crisis as major corporations pulled ads to protest Fuji TV’s failure to take action, despite learning of the incident right after it happened.

The ad boycott has turned into a watershed moment, directing public anger against not only the TV star, Masahiro Nakai, a former member of a celebrated boy idol band who later became a popular show host, but also his employer. Fuji TV has faced allegations that staff helped arrange the original encounter with the woman and that management looked the other way as Mr. Nakai tried to cover it up.

In corporate Japan, it is accepted practice for top executives to respond to damaging scandals with resignations, usually delivered with deep bows of contrition before banks of flashing cameras. But in this case, they failed to appease a sense of outrage that was shared by many at the news conference, which drew some 400 journalists and others to Fuji TV’s futuristic silver headquarters building on Tokyo Bay.

“Fuji thought the president and chairman’s stepping down would be enough, but their logic was wrong,” said Takahiko Kageyama, a media professor at Doshisha Women’s College of Liberal Arts who researches the entertainment industry. “Instead, it gave an impression that the executives were trying to hide something.”

At the event, which Fuji TV broadcast live in its entirety, the company’s president, Koichi Minato; its chairman, Shuji Kano; and other company executives faced demanding questions and angry harangues that stretched late into the night. As many of the speakers launched into long lectures, the executives maintained expressions of solemn penitence.

At times, the news conference devolved into a shouting match: Speakers yelled over each other to demand that the company explain its behavior and reveal more. There was at least one 15-minute bathroom break, after which everyone took their seats to continue the grilling.

Fuji TV threw open the doors after facing criticism that it was being insufficiently transparent, having only included selected media when it held an earlier news conference. While many attendees identified themselves as representing established local media, others said they were freelancers and social media influencers.

Fuji TV’s president said the company, which has its own broadcast news operation, was responding to criticism that it was holding itself to a double standard.

“Our company has used our own cameras to pursue suspicious behavior,” Mr. Minato told the auditorium. “We take to heart the criticism that we are avoiding the cameras of others. We are keenly aware that this has shaken our credibility.”

The case came to light last month after a weekly tabloid exposed the payment by Mr. Nakai, 52, who announced his retirement from show business last week. The tabloid, called Josei Seven, reported that Mr. Nakai had caused “serious trouble” with the woman that resulted in him paying her 90 million yen, or almost $600,000.

Mr. Nakai has acknowledged that an “incident” took place, for which he made a settlement of an unspecified amount. While he offered no details, subsequent media reports said the incident was a non-consensual sexual act. Mr. Nakai has said he used no violence, and there has been no official investigation, but the case has struck a nerve in Japan for exposing an extreme version of problems faced by women in the workplace.

A 10-hour news conference is as unheard of in Japan as it would be in most other countries. Despite the length, Fuji TV revealed few new details on Monday, saying that the incident would be investigated by an independent committee. Many of the comments dealt with Fuji TV’s decision to continue employing Mr. Nakai as a host of its shows and for failing to protect the woman.

In response to questions, Fuji TV’s president said he didn’t make big changes to programming to avoid “agitating” the victim, though he admitted that, in hindsight, this was probably a mistake. Mr. Minato also refused to say whether the victim was an employee of Fuji TV, though he did say that he met with her after the incident.

“Unfortunately, she was not able to return to work as she had hoped,” the president said, “but she came to say goodbye because she was leaving work of her own volition.”

During the news conference, questions also focused on the whereabouts of the man who built Fuji TV into an entertainment giant, and who experts said laid in place the male-dominated culture underlying its current problems. Hisashi Hieda, the 87-year-old former president of Fuji TV who is now chairman of its parent company, Fujisankei Communications Group, didn’t appear at either news conference and has yet to speak out on the scandal threatening the company.

While the Fuji TV executives said on Monday that Mr. Hieda played no role in the current scandal, observers said the resignations were at least in part an effort to shield him from scrutiny.

“This ritual was about protecting the status quo by offering two scapegoats instead,” said Igor Prusa, a researcher at Metropolitan University Prague who wrote a book on the handling of scandals in Japan.