Photo/Illutration A former pop idol, using the pseudonym Hayashi, says he was sexually abused by Johnny Kitagawa, the founder of Johnny & Associates Inc. (Yuki Shibata)

A man in his 50s appeared in a recent BBC program that opened the floodgates of sexual abuse allegations against Johnny Kitagawa, founder of the Johnny & Associates Inc. talent agency.

But when the man, a former pop idol, made the same allegations 30 years ago, he was called a liar, the scandal never transpired, and Kitagawa continued to live his life of power and prestige.

“I no longer want this to be swept under the rug,” the man, using the pseudonym Hayashi, said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun.

Hayashi said that when he was in his third year of junior high school, he went to an interview with Kitagawa and joined “Johnny’s Jr.,” an umbrella term for pre-debut idols in the making.

While he was sleeping on a futon at a “dormitory” for singing and dancing practice in Tokyo’s Harajuku district, Kitagawa entered the room, massaged the teen’s legs and repeatedly touched his genitals, Hayashi said.

He said Kitagawa also performed oral sex on him.

Hayashi said he was sexually abused more than 10 times until he left the agency when he was in high school.

During his high school years, he read a book by Koji Kita, once a star at the talent agency. The book revealed that Kita, who died in 2012, was also sexually abused by Kitagawa.

Hayashi got to know Kita through the book’s publisher and contributed his own experiences in a new version of the book, using the Hayashi pseudonym.

But little was done about the disclosure of Kitagawa’s sexual misconduct. Some readers and Johnny’s fans called Hayashi a liar.

Decades passed. And Kitagawa died a free man in 2019.

In March this year, Hayashi again detailed the abuse in the BBC’s one-hour documentary, “Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop.”

Since then, several other former idols have come forward, saying they were sexually assaulted by Kitagawa.

The agency has apologized to the victims and set up an outside investigative panel.

“I would like (the agency) to thoroughly investigate the facts, admit what needs to be admitted and disclose what went wrong. Otherwise, the same thing will happen again,” Hayashi said. “We must create a society not dominated by the powerful.”

He believes many idols have experienced similar sexual abuse, but prejudice against male victims still prevails. He said he can understand their reluctance to speak out.

But Hayashi hopes show-biz entertainers will raise their voices.

When he was in the agency, “senior idols who were adults at that time comforted me but did not help,” he said. “To put it harshly, doing nothing while seeing juniors being sexually abused is tantamount to being complicit in a crime.”

He said influential people should raise their voices and change the nature of the talent agency.

Former idols Yasushi Hashida, 37, and Kauan Okamoto, 27, who said they were molested by Kitagawa when they were teens, attended a meeting on abuse held by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party on June 12.

Hashida told The Asahi Shimbun after the meeting, “I think (the agency) needs to thoroughly investigate why such things happened and what can be done to prevent them, while ensuring the protection of privacy and dignity. Otherwise, it’s meaningless.”

Okamoto said, “It is important that (the agency) has a clear process for those who will seek consultations with it in the future.”

(This article was written by Kohei Kano and Amane Shimazaki.)

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