The president of Johnny & Associates Inc., a talent agency that nurtured some of the biggest boy bands and male idols in Japan, has resigned to take responsibility for decades of sexual abuse by her uncle, the agency founder.

Julie Keiko Fujishima held a news conference Sept. 7 at which she acknowledged that the late Johnny Kitagawa was a sexual predator who apparently began molesting boys under his wing in the 1950s. Kitagawa died in 2019 at age 87 without ever having to answer to the accusations.

Some of his victims were as young as 13.

The news conference was the first time the talent agency has addressed the matter in public following the release Aug. 29 of a report by a special investigative team that said hundreds of young boys may have been victims of sexual abuse by Kitagawa and that Fujishima’s mother, the late Mary Yasuko Fujishima, had for years covered up the abuse by her younger brother.

“I as an individual and the talent agency admit that Kitagawa had abused members and I extend my deepest apology to all the victims,” Fujishima said.

She added that she had resigned as company president effective Sept. 5 and named Noriyuki Higashiyama as her successor.

Fujishima said the agency would provide financial support to all the victims and that she will remain as a board member until the measures being put in place, including psychological care, are no longer needed.

Higashiyama, an actor and singer who is the oldest member of the talent agency, also attended the news conference and said, “I extend my heartfelt apology to all the victims and those who suffered many years of physical and psychological problems.”

He added that he would retire as an entertainer by year-end and devote the rest of his life to resolving the fallout from the sexual abuse incidents and helping to rebuild the lost public trust in the company.

He also made a plea for people to stop making slanderous remarks about the victims.

In the subsequent question-and-answer session, Higashiyama said he was never a victim of sexual abuse but had heard the rumors about Kitagawa’s behavior and did nothing about them.

He added that no one in the talent agency, whether his subordinate or superior, had ever consulted with him about their suffering. He said he had firmly believed that Kitagawa was not capable of behaving in such a depraved manner because he regarded him as a father figure.

“Because I was unable to take any action on my part, I want to reflect on that and hold that in mind while dealing with various issues in the future,” Higashiyama said.

Yoshihiko Inohara, another actor who joined Johnny’s & Associates as a sixth-grader, also took part in the news conference.

He said he and fellow members talked about the rumors, by then an open secret in the entertainment world, right after they joined, but he added, “While this might sound like an excuse, there was a mood of not talking about the topic.”

Fujishima was asked to address concerns she would continue to wield enormous control over the company because she is the sole shareholder in Johnny’s & Associates.

“It is very difficult for me to now give specific details about what I will do with the shares,” she said.

Higashiyama added that he at present had no intention of removing Johnny’s from the company name. He said there had been intense in-house discussions about the company name, with some arguing that a new name should be used to symbolize a new start.

“I am now of the mind of having all members of the company come together as one in order to wipe away all the past image of (what Kitagawa did),” Higashiyama said.

Both Fujishima and Higashiyama said they wanted to set up a forum that would allow them to talk face-to-face with the victims and confront what Kitagawa did.

Higashiyama vowed that the support to victims being offered by the company would be above what the law called for.

He also called for in-depth discussions with the mass media over its long years of silence in reporting on the sexual abuse and the pressure apparently exerted by the talent agency to gain the media’s cooperation in staying silent.

Higashiyama said all fault for that relationship lay with the talent agency and Kitagawa.