Photo/Illutration Makoto Hayashi, leader of a panel set up by Johnny & Associates Inc., speaks at a news conference in Tokyo on June 12. (Shota Tomonaga)

A panel of external experts established by Johnny & Associates Inc. said it will not try to uncover the entire picture concerning sexual abuse allegations against Johnny Kitagawa, founder of the talent agency.

Instead, the panel said, its main task is to investigate the agency’s response to the allegations and to propose measures to prevent a recurrence.

Kitagawa, who was accused of sexually abusing boys under his business control as far back as the 1960s, died in 2019 at age 87.

Members of the panel, named the “special team to prevent a recurrence,” told a news conference in Tokyo on June 12 that they will interview former members of the agency who have said Kitagawa sexually abused them when they were teenagers and examine how the agency responded to the issue.

While the panel said it will acknowledge that the allegations are true, it stressed it will not conduct a “thorough investigation” covering current and former members to reveal yet-unknown abuse cases.

Panel leader Makoto Hayashi, a lawyer and a former prosecutor-general, said the purpose of the investigation is “to examine what was wrong with Johnny & Associates’ past responses (to the sexual abuse), propose measures to prevent a recurrence in terms of governance, and ask (Johnny & Associates) to put them into action.”

Another panel member, Nozomu Asukai, a psychiatrist and board chair at the Victim Support Center of Tokyo, a public interest organization for victims of crimes and traffic accidents, said a comprehensive investigation into the sex abuse allegations could have a harmful effect on the victims.

“Being covered by (the investigation) itself would put a mental burden on the victims,” Asukai said at the news conference.

The panel members also spoke about a recent report by the weekly Shukan Bunshun magazine that said a man who worked as a manager at Johnny & Associates also sexually abused boys under his care.

The panel suggested that it could investigate sexual abuse allegations made about someone other than Kitagawa at the agency.

The panel said it will publish its investigation results, but it did not say when they would be released or what details will be included.

(This article was written by Bunna Takizawa and Yohei Goto, senior staff writer.)

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