Japan Pop Agency Boss Resigns Over Founder Sexual Abuse Scandal

SEP 7 2023·Updated AUG 27

Story

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons

The Facts

Julie Fujishima, the niece of the late J-pop mogul Johnny Kitagawa, who's accused of sexually abusing hundreds of boys and young men over several decades, has resigned as leader of the talent agency her uncle founded.
Reuters
Johnny & Associates is Japan’s most popular pop music talent agency, and its founder's scandal garnered mainstream ire after the BBC aired a tell-all documentary in March. Kitagawa, who died in 2019, denied any wrongdoing and was never charged.
NBC
However, at a news conference Thursday, Fujishima stated: "Both the agency itself and I myself as a person recognize that sex abuse by Johnny Kitagawa took place." She then apologized to the victims and stepped down from her position.
BBC News
Fujishima — who remains the sole owner of the agency — added that she will remain a member of the company’s board of directors to oversee a victim compensation program. She will be replaced by actor and singer Noriyuki Higashiyama.
guardian
The apology and resignation come a little over a week after an independent probe commissioned by the agency found that the allegations against Kitagawa are credible and that the abuse spanned from the 1950s to the 2010s.
The Japan Times
The allegations first surfaced in a local magazine in 1999. However, Kitagawa reportedly sued the company for libel and received damages.
CNN

Sources Split

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The Spin

Narrative A

While acknowledgment of Johnny Kitagawa's heinous abuse is a step in the right direction, it doesn't come close to justice. For six decades, Johnny Kitagawa sexually abused vulnerable boys while the people around him — and, more deplorably, society as a whole — turned a blind eye to his crimes. This case speaks to the broader crisis of governance in Japanese entertainment and calls attention to the nation's dearth of adequate child abuse laws.

www.ft.com

Narrative B

Although there are no excuses for the terrible crimes Kitagawa committed and Japan's entertainment industry — and the nation itself — has a long way to go to stamping out crimes against minors, both the agency and Tokyo have taken encouraging steps forward: Johnny & Associates with its compensation program and Japan with its revision of the Penal Code concerning sex crimes and further reforms in the works.