The president of one among Japan’s most influential leisure companies resigned after an unbiased investigation confirmed the corporate’s founder, Johnny Kitagawa, had sexually abused younger males in his care for the reason that Seventies.
Allegations towards Mr. Kitagawa, who helped aspirants obtain pop stardom in Japan, have circulated for many years, however have been largely ignored by a quiescent media that had turn out to be depending on the leisure mogul and his family-run firm, Johnny & Associates, to supply entry to the younger performers. His status as a hitmaker related to a few of Japan’s hottest boy bands protected Mr. Kitagawa from scandal, even after his loss of life in 2019 at age 87.
The launch of an hourlong BBC documentary in March that includes interviews with three of Mr. Kitagawa’s accusers opened a floodgate of recrimination, prompting extra males to return ahead and placing strain on the corporate to reply. Under immense scrutiny, Johnny & Associates introduced in May that it was forming an inner investigative panel to “prevent the recurrence” of future abuse.
At a news convention on Thursday, Julie Keiko Fujishima, Mr. Kitagawa’s niece, acknowledged the outcomes of the investigation and apologized on behalf of herself and the corporate. She additionally introduced she had resigned as the corporate’s president on Wednesday.
“These problems were caused by my uncle, and, as his niece, I want to take responsibility for them,” she mentioned, including that the corporate would search to supply assist and compensation to accusers. (Ms. Fujishima, the corporate’s sole proprietor, will stay as a board member, accountable solely for aid and compensation.)
The report, launched in late August, confirmed a whole bunch of circumstances of abuse by Mr. Kitagawa going again greater than 50 years. It cited a scarcity of company governance on the firm and media complicity as main components in his impunity. Mr. Kitagawa’s sister, Mary, who died in 2021, additionally performed a task in protecting up his conduct and defending him from the results, the report concluded.
No prison costs have been ever filed towards Mr. Kitagawa, who constantly denied the accusations towards him.
Ms. Fujishima, who has served on the corporate’s board since 1998 and was appointed president in 2019, mentioned that she had no direct data of Mr. Kitagawa’s conduct and had little private interplay with performers represented by the company earlier than his loss of life.
She had been conscious of allegations towards him, she mentioned, however on the time “couldn’t imagine taking any action.”
Ms. Fujishima will probably be changed by Noriyuki Higashiyama, a singer who rose to fame below the auspices of Johnny & Associates and later turned a profitable actor and news anchor.
Mr. Higashiyama mentioned that he had not been sexually abused by Mr. Kitagawa and had not recognized that it was taking place to others, though he had heard rumors. In feedback on Thursday, he pledged to reform the corporate.
“I believed Mr. Kitagawa,” he mentioned, describing the mogul as a father determine.
Speaking at a parallel news convention, Kazuya Nakamura, who has accused Mr. Kitagawa of abusing him whereas he was an aspiring performer, mentioned that the corporate’s act of contrition “felt like a dream.”
But he questioned the corporate’s sincerity and steered that appointing Mr. Higashiyama, who was one among Mr. Kitagawa’s prime stars through the time of the abuse, made it troublesome to imagine that the corporate was dedicated to alter.
Some of Mr. Kitagawa’s accusers have mentioned that they’re contemplating submitting civil and prison complaints towards the corporate in Japan and civil fits abroad, the place they’ve alleged among the abuse occurred.
In his heyday, Mr. Kitagawa was considered the king of Japanese boy bands, creating greater than a dozen energy teams that dominated the J-Pop music scene. Boys as younger as 9 have been recruited by Mr. Kitagawa and lived collectively in a dormitory, the place they have been skilled to sing, dance and conduct themselves like pop idols.
The firm continues to handle a few of Japan’s hottest musical acts, with appreciable affect and energy within the leisure business. It will maintain its identify for now, Mr. Higashiyama mentioned Thursday.
Rumors about Mr. Kitagawa’s conduct first got here to public consideration in 1999, when the weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun wrote concerning the experiences of a number of nameless males. But different news retailers largely ignored the story, and Mr. Kitagawa received a libel swimsuit towards Shukan Bunshun’s writer. Damages of 8.8 million yen (about $60,000) have been later lowered on attraction.
Source: www.nytimes.com