By YUJI HARADA/ Staff Writer
December 27, 2022 at 17:36 JST
The Johnny & Associates Inc. building in Tokyo’s Minato Ward (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Leading talent agency Johnny & Associates Inc. and two related companies were ordered to pay about 40 million yen ($301,000) in back taxes concerning cash gifts given to TV personalities, according to sources.
At the beginning of every year, Julie Keiko Fujishima, the agency’s president, handed “otoshidama” (New Year’s gift money) to the so-called “tarento.” The agency manages about 100 of them.
The cash was placed in envelopes featuring the names of Fujishima or senior agency staff members.
Over the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, about 90 million yen in such gift money was provided, the sources said.
Johnny & Associates and the two companies—a publisher and a musical rights manager—have reported these gifts as tax-exempt “entertainment and social expenses.”
Such expenses are used to host and entertain outside people, such as clients and suppliers.
The Tokyo Regional Taxation Bureau conducted an inspection starting in October 2021 and concluded that the gift money should have been listed as the “personal expenses of Fujishima herself,” the sources said.
They said cash given to the agency’s own members should not be counted as entertainment and social expenses.
All three companies are located in Tokyo’s Minato Ward and are headed by Fujishima.
The amount of tax payments in arrears and penalties is about 40 million yen.
The agency and two companies have accepted the order and have already amended their tax statements, the sources said.
The TV personalities who received the money do not have to pay gift taxes because the amount provided to each of them was only several hundred thousand yen at most, the sources said.
Fujishima is a niece of Johnny Kitagawa, the founder of the agency. After Kitagawa died in 2019, Fujishima took over the president’s position.
The agency has produced dozens of boy bands and male idol groups known collectively as Janiizu (Johnny’s), such as SMAP, Shonentai, Arashi and Travis Japan.
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