Photo/Illutration Johnny & Associates Inc. took the unusual step of answering questions on its website on May 14. (Emi Tamada)

A panel of external experts commissioned by Johnny & Associates Inc. has started its investigation of the sexual abuse allegations against the talent agency’s deceased founder, which have rocked Japan’s entertainment industry.

In a news conference held on June 12, the special task force said it will interview people who were alleged victims of Johnny Kitagawa’s sexual violence and senior executives of the agency to identify problems with the manner in which the company responded to the scandal.

Initially, the agency expressed its unwillingness to initiate such an independent inquiry into the allegations. The start of the panel’s work, if it is really an independent probe, represents a step forward.

The fact-finding panel said while it will try to determine the facts concerning the sexual violation allegations on its own, it will not carry out an exhaustive investigation into other possible abuse cases related to individual artists, celebrities and others under contract with the agency.

Naturally, interviews with artists who are actual or potential victims of sexual violence must be done with sufficient caution to prevent “secondary attacks” against them in social and other media. They must not be done against the will of the victims.

But it has been pointed out that there might be a large number of people who were sexually abused by Kitagawa.

If it has no plan to make serious efforts to uncover the entire truth, the panel will not even come close to achieving what it is entrusted to do. The team should make every possible effort to clarify the whole picture through careful communications with the people involved.

It should also be noted that any meaningful investigation is possible only if the agency provides total cooperation. As things now stand, however, there is not much reason to be optimistic about how the agency will cooperate with the panel.

The agency’s management team has to this day refused to hold a news conference to answer questions. It has only posted a statement describing its views about the matter on its website.

It is hard to believe the agency’s claim that nobody at the company was aware of sexual violence involving its founder given that in a past libel suit filed by the agency against a magazine reporting on Kitagawa’s sexual abuse, the court acknowledged the facts.

While the agency’s management has remained silent, artists signed with the agency have been bearing the brunt of the scandal. One has apologized over the matter in a TV program for which he serves as a newscaster.

Others have voiced concerns that unfounded comments about the scandal could hurt innocent people. In a grossly irresponsible move, the agency’s management appears to have been seeking to avoid confronting the scandal while using its artists, who are not primarily responsible for the alleged sexual abuse, as a shield to protect itself.

The question is whether the panel can conduct a meaningful investigation under these circumstances.

Any normal agency would hold a news conference in which its chief executive would answer questions and criticisms in public and explain the company’s goals in setting up a panel of external experts to look into the matter as well as the panel’s mission and responsibilities.

This is the way a decent company should try to fulfill its social responsibility under such circumstances.

The agency cannot hope to get itself off the hook by simply entrusting the panel to conduct an inquiry into the scandal without taking these steps. The scandal has even prompted the government to start considering new, more effective measures to prevent sex crimes.

We again urge Johnny & Associates to hold a news conference over the matter.

--The Asahi Shimbun, June 16

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