Johnny Kitagawa
[1] Kitagawa assembled, produced and managed more than a dozen popular bands, including Tanokin Trio, Hey!
Regarded as one of the most powerful figures in the Japanese entertainment industry, he held a virtual monopoly on the creation of boy bands in Japan for more than 40 years.
From 1988 to 2000, Kitagawa was the subject of a number of claims that he had taken advantage of his position to engage in improper sexual relationships with boys under contract to his talent agency, though no criminal charges were ever filed against him.
[3][4] As of 2023, a reported number of 478 persons have claimed to have been victimized by Kitagawa, of those, 325 sought compensation, and only 150 have been confirmed to have belonged in the company.
[2] Johnnys achieved a measure of success by using a then-novel formula of mixing attractive performers singing popular music with coordinated dance routines.
The song and dance group met with success, as reflected by seven consecutive appearances on the annual invitation-only Kōhaku Uta Gassen, beginning in 1970.
[9] Kitagawa went on to assemble, produce and manage many of the top all-male bands in Japan, including groups such as Hey!
Members sang, danced, and performed in comedic sketches as they further developed the skills to graduate to a major act.
[11][13] Programs that gave unfavorable coverage did not receive interviews or television appearance from popular stars managed by Kitagawa.
[12] Kitagawa maintained a high degree of control over his acts,[2][17] to the extent that their images did not appear on the company website.
[2][17] On July 9, 2019, Kitagawa died at a hospital in Tokyo after suffering a subarachnoid hemorrhage stroke on June 18, at the age of 87.
[18][19][20] A memorial concert was held on September 4, 2019, at the Tokyo Dome, with 154 of Johnny's artists and other celebrities in attendance, including Akiko Wada and Dewi Sukarno.
[25][26][27][28] In the early 1960s, Kitagawa was accused of sexually assaulting students at Shin Geino Gakuin, a talent training school located in Toshima Ward, Tokyo.
[29][31][32][33] Johnny & Associates sued Shukan Bunshun for defamation, and in 2002, the Tokyo District Court ruled in favor of Kitagawa, awarding him ¥8.8 million in damages.
[34] The case saw minimal coverage in Japan, with many journalists attributing it to Kitagawa's influence on Japanese mass media.
[36] In March 2023, the BBC released a documentary centered on the sexual abuse claims against Kitagawa, Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop, presented by Mobeen Azhar.
[3] In April 2023, musician and former Johnny's Jr. member Kauan Okamoto told a press conference held at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan that he had been subjected to sexual abuse by Kitagawa on a number of occasions between 2012 and 2016, and called on the management to acknowledge the misconduct.
[38][39] In response to Okamoto's press conference, Johnny & Associates released a statement saying that it would "continue its unified effort to thoroughly ensure compliance without exception, and tackle strengthening of a system of governance," but the company did not directly address the allegations at the time.
[39] Later that month, NHK reported that Johnny & Associates was interviewing their employees and talent, and had sent a document out to business partners saying that they were looking into the allegations.
[46][47] An independent probe established by Johnny & Associates reported the findings of their investigation on August 29, 2023, saying that Kitagawa repeatedly committed sexual abuse from the early 1970s until the mid-2010s.
[49] On September 6, 2023, Guinness World Records decided to remove Kitagawa's achievement of producing the most top songs on the pop music chart from its official website.
[52][53] Several major news outlets, including NHK, issued mea culpas in recognition of their years of silence that effectively allowed Kitagawa's sexual abuses to continue unabated.
[54][55] Bungeishunjū and Mobeen Azhar were awarded in 2023 by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan (FCCJ) for their coverage of the scandal.
The FCCJ likened this scandal to the assassination of Shinzo Abe, citing media silence on the systemic abuses by organizations close to powerful figures.
[58][59][60] Smile Up will continue to exist under the ownership of Fujishima and will eventually close down once all sexual abuse compensation requests, which numbered 325 at the time of the announcement, have been processed.
