Japan Pop Agency Boss Resigns Over Founder Sexual Abuse Scandal

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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.1
  • 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.2
  • 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.3
  • 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.4
  • 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.5
  • The allegations first surfaced in a local magazine in 1999. However, Kitagawa reportedly sued the company for libel and received damages.6

Sources: 1Reuters, 2NBC, 3BBC News, 4Guardian, 5The japan times and 6CNN.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Ft. 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.
  • Narrative B, as provided by The japan times. 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.