Confronted by a sexual abuse scandal of mammoth proportions, talent agency Johnny & Associates Inc. held a long-overdue news conference Sept. 7 and admitted that Johnny Kitagawa, its late founder, molested numerous aspiring pop idols, all boys and likely in the hundreds, over the course of decades.

Regenerating the disgraced company will be a long and grueling process. The scandal also raised disturbing questions about the media’s failure to investigate rumors of Kitagawa’s predatory behavior, which was an open secret in the entertainment world. Media outlets are under intense pressure to respond and announce their findings.

Julie Keiko Fujishima, Kitagawa’s niece, appeared in public for the first time since the scandal flared. She announced her resignation as president of the company. Her replacement, actor and singer Noriyuki Higashiyama is the agency’s oldest member.

Even though the news conference came far too late, the company’s promise to pay compensation to a wide range of victims represents a step forward. The agency has no time to waste in devising a framework for compensation payments and providing relief to victims. It must ensure transparency throughout the process.

However, there are serious doubts the new management will be capable of fulfilling the company’s pledge to transform its organization and culture.

The new president, Higashiyama, was close to Kitagawa and is a central figure of the old regime. He was chosen by Fujishima to replace her. None of this signals a break with the agency’s corrupt family management. During the news conference, questions were asked about allegations of harassment against Higashiyama.

Is Higashiyama a good fit as the company’s new leader as he embarks on the formidable challenge of reforming its management and rebuilding its reputation? The agency’s decision to retain its name, which derived from the founder, seems to reflect a culture of cronyism. These decisions are far from acceptable for the victims.

The agency deserves to be labeled irresponsible also for allowing Suguru Shirahase, the agency’s former vice president and Kitagawa’s close confidant, to avoid facing the media. Under Kitagawa, Shirahase was entrusted with sole responsibility for handling media relations.

If it was really serious about making a clean break with the past, the agency should have ensured that Shirahase, who must know the truth better than anybody else, gave an explanation in his own words.

A report by a special panel commissioned by the agency to investigate the allegations was instrumental in the company’s quick recognition of the facts. But the panel did not do enough to clarify the roles that Shirahase and other senior figures played. 

The new management should not be oblivious to the fact that structural problems behind the agency’s organized attempts to cover up the scandal have yet to be cleared up.

Nor must the agency be allowed to sweep its shameful past under the rug simply because Kitagawa is deceased. It should take steps to hold itself fully accountable for what happened. This is the very minimum if the company is to maintain its relationship with society and continue in business.

For years, the media in Japan turned a blind eye to the gross human rights violations against minors that were of an unprecedented scale and going on in its backyard, so to speak. The media has been alarmingly slow and timid in responding to the scandal.

All companies whose business partners are accused of human rights violations have a social duty to clarify the roles they played. This requires those tarnished by wrongdoing to rectify the problem while steps are taken to monitor the reform measures being implemented.

News organizations, and that includes The Asahi Shimbun, must no longer be allowed to continue doing business with the agency without scrutinizing their past relations with the firm.　

The top executives of media outlets need to realize that their fitness and qualifications for their jobs have been called into question and think seriously about the next step.

Front-line journalists, for their part, should ruminate on whether they have been driven by the closed-door culture that is so prevalent and take actions that demonstrate a commitment to fulfilling their own responsibility.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Sept. 9