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. (The Asahi Shimbun)

My many suspicions and vague sense of aberration were finally put into clear writing.

That, at least, was how I felt upon reading an investigative report, released on Aug. 29 by a special team to prevent a recurrence, attesting to sex crimes allegedly committed by the late Johnny Kitagawa (1931-2019).

The report brought out the harm inherent in Johnny & Associates Inc., a family-run business, and went so far as to point out the need for the current president to resign. I thought anew of the pain and anguish of Kitagawa’s victims.

Sexual abuse at the company started in the early 1970s and spanned four decades. The report blames Kitagawa’s sexual deviation as well as the neglect and cover-up perpetrated by his late older sister, Mary.

I was initially skeptical of the team’s objectivity in conducting this investigation, but that worry turned out to be unfounded, I am glad to say.

What broke down the seemingly insurmountable hurdle of “confirming the sex crimes of a deceased individual” was the courage of the victims who came forward to testify.

Starting with a number of former pre-debut idols, collectively known as "Johnny’s Jr.," who spoke out in a BBC documentary that aired this past March, others followed suit, one after another.

Kauan Okamoto, a former Johnny’s Jr. who watched the documentary, wrote in his book “You”: “For the first time, I saw victims talking seriously about the abuses they suffered.”

Seeing how they wept as they spoke, Okamoto told himself, “It’s about time I, too, braced myself for this.”

Okamoto held a news conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan before both foreign and Japanese reporters. The event changed society’s atmosphere for good.

The report also touched on “the silence of the mass media” as part of the background of the sordid scandal, challenging members of the media to honestly ask themselves if they ever hesitated to confront the issues head-on or simply decided against pursuing them at all.

As a reporter myself, I take the challenge quite seriously.

The ball is now in Johnny & Associates’ court to set up a compensation system for victims and define its own human rights policy.

I just hope the company will face the victims in all sincerity and swiftly implement measures to prevent a recurrence.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 30

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

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