THE GUARDIAN



 

Johnny Kitagawa’s niece issues apology to men who have made abuse claims while not commenting on veracity of allegations


The president of one of Japan’s most powerful talent agencies has apologised over allegations that the firm’s late founder and pop impresario, Johnny Kitagawa, sexually abused multiple boys.

In a video and statement released on Sunday evening, Julie Fujishima, Kitagawa’s niece, issued the apology to young men who had stepped forward with abuse claims, although she did not comment on the veracity of the allegations.

Johnny & Associates, the driving force behind a string of successful Japanese pop acts, had come under pressure to comment directly on the allegations after a former protege claimed he had been sexually assaulted on at least 15 occasions.

Kauan Okamoto, a Japanese-Brazilian singer-songwriter, alleged in April that Kitagawa would abuse boys he had invited to stay overnight at his penthouse apartment in Tokyo, adding that his victims knew that speaking out would ruin their chances of becoming pop idols.

Okamoto said he had been abused over a four-year period from 2012, when he was 15, as a member of Johnny’s Jr, a group of trainees who also worked as a talent pool for Johnny & Associates. He added that he had been in the same room as three other boys when they were assaulted by Kitagawa.

“First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest apologies” to the men who have come forward as victims, Fujishima said.

She claimed she had not been aware of the abuse at the time, but added: “Obviously, we do not believe there was no problem. As a business and as an individual, I absolutely do not tolerate these acts.

“On the other hand, it is not easy for us to simply declare by ourselves whether individual allegations can be recognised as facts or not, when we cannot confirm with the individual directly concerned, Johnny Kitagawa.

“This is not the kind of occasion where you can be forgiven by saying: ‘I did not know.’ But the truth is that I did not.”

Allegations against Kitagawa, who died in 2019 aged 87, have been public knowledge for more than 20 years, but were ignored by TV networks that depended on his agency to provide a steady stream of talent they would use to draw in younger viewers.

In 1999, the weekly magazine Shukan Bunshun ran a series of articles based on interviews with teenage boys who claimed he had sexually abused them.

Kitagawa sued for libel and was awarded damages, but the judgment was partially overturned on appeal, with the Tokyo high court ruling in 2004 that the magazine’s allegations were mostly factual. Kitagawa’s appeal was rejected by the supreme court. He was never charged with a crime.

Kitagawa launched the careers of a string of boybands, including perennial favourites Smap and Arashi, over a career spanning more than half a century. At its peak, Johnny & Associates managed clients who appeared in dozens of TV programmes and commercials.

Kitagawa’s conduct has been in the spotlight since March, when the BBC documentary Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop included interviews with other former Johnny’s members who said they had been sexually abused by the pop mogul.

Penlight, a group of fans of Johnny’s boybands, said the agency’s decision to issue statements rather than hold a press conference had left many questions unanswered.

“We ask the company to fully investigate and recognise the facts of the matter, to take responsibility as a corporation and apologise to the victims of sexual violence,” it said on Monday.