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Japan talent agency head steps down amid sex abuse scandal

September 7, 2023

Johnny & Associates engineered the rise of some of Japan's most prominent pop groups. Allegations that its late founder engaged in sexual abuse of young stars have stirred outrage and forced a shake-up at the agency.

https://p.dw.com/p/4W2dG
Julie Keiko Fujishima (right) stands next to new Johnny & Associates president Noriyuki Higashiyama
Noriyuki Higashiyama (left) will now take over Johnny & Associates after Julie Fujishima's (right) departureImage: Kyodo/picture alliance

The head of Japan's largest boy band agency said Thursday that she stepped down amid accusations that the group's founder Johnny Kitagawa sexually exploited young stars.

What do we know so far? 

Julie Fujishima, Kitagawa's niece, acknowledged that her late uncle engaged in sexual abuse towards aspiring pop idols. Kitagawa died in 2019 following a stroke and was never criminally charged. 

"I apologize to his victims from the bottom of my heart," Fujishima told journalists during a media briefing in Tokyo. She said she had resigned on Tuesday as president of the Johnny & Associates talent agency.    

Noriyuki Higashiyama, who belonged to a boy band in the 1980s, has now taken the helm of the agency.

"It will take time to win back the trust we have lost, but I will devote the rest of my life to dealing with this problem," Higashiyama said at the press event.     

Decades of sex abuse accusations against Kitagawa  

Johnny & Associates, which was established by Kitagawa in 1962, cultivated the rise of prominent J-pop bands such as SMAP and Arashi. Aspiring idols at the agency taken under Kitagawa's tutelage are known as "Johnny's Jr."    

Japanese media coverage of the July 2019 death of Johnny Kitagawa
Japanese media has been reluctant to cover the allegations against Kitagawa, a powerful figure in the entertainment industry Image: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images

Japanese news magazine Shukan Bunshun first detailed the sex abuse accusations against Kitagawa in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The magazine was one of the few Japanese media outlets willing to cover the story.  

In retaliation, Johnny & Associates filed a lawsuit against the magazine's publisher for libel. After a four-year legal fight, an appeals court found that Shukan Bunshun had "demonstrated the sexual harassment was factual" and based on reliable testimony. 

Kauan Okamoto speaks to the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo
Kauan Okamoto has called on Kitagawa's victims to speak out Image: Rodrigo Reyes Marin/ZUMA Press/picture alliance

Earlier this year, the BBC ran a documentary on Kitagawa's sex crimes featuring testimony from anonymous victims. Japanese-Brazilian singer Kauan Okamoto in April also told the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan that he was molested repeatedly by Kitagawa.   

Independent investigators last month said Kitagawa had engaged in abuse as far back as the 1950s. The panel found a "few hundred" of the aspiring pop stars had been exploited by the entertainment mogul.

wd/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP, EFE)