Photo/Illutration Lawyer Makoto Hayashi, center, and other members of a panel set up by Johnny & Associates Inc. present the results of their three-month investigation of sexual abuse at a news conference in Tokyo on Aug 29. (Takeshi Iwashita)

A special investigative panel said the president of one of Japan’s largest talent agencies should resign over the decades of sexual abuse committed by her uncle against hundreds of young entertainers.

At a news conference on Aug. 29, the panel confirmed that Johnny Kitagawa, the late founder of Johnny & Associates Inc., started molesting boys under his wing in the 1950s.

Noting that Julie Keiko Fujishima, Kitagawa’s niece, is the current president of the agency, the panel said such family management was a major reason for the lack of corporate governance that enabled Kitagawa, who died in 2019 at age 87, to continue his predatory ways for so long.

The panel, which was set up by Johnny & Associates, said Fujishima would have to resign if the talent agency wanted to make a fresh start.

Over a three-month period, panel members questioned 41 individuals, including 23 former members of the talent agency who said they were victims of Kitagawa’s sexual abuse.

Some of those questioned said several hundred boys were victimized, according to the panel.

The panel said that between the early 1970s and the mid-2010s, many members of “Johnny’s Jr.,” an umbrella term for pre-debut idols, were victims of his sexual abuse.

To prevent a recurrence, the panel recommended the talent agency finally admit clearly that Kitagawa carried out the sexual abuse, apologize sincerely to the victims and engage in immediate dialogue with them to provide help and support as soon as possible.

(This article was written by Amane Shimazaki, Rina Horikoshi and Takumi Terui.)

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