Photo/Illutration Nippon Television Network Corp.’s building in September (Tetsuro Takehana)

Nippon Television Network Corp. acknowledged “pandering” to Johnny & Associates Inc. for over two decades despite reports of sexual abuse committed by Johnny Kitagawa, founder of the talent agency.

Nippon TV broadcast the results of an in-house investigation into its relationship with the agency on an evening news program on Oct. 4.

The investigation was conducted in response to a report by an agency-established panel that said the “silence of mass media” was a contributing factor that allowed Kitagawa to continue sexually abusing minors for decades.

Nippon TV said it interviewed reporters from its news department, program staff and senior officials from various departments, who were involved in the matter from more than 20 years ago to the present.

During the broadcast, it presented comments from people who were senior news department officials when the Shukan Bunshun weekly magazine published allegations of Kitagawa’s sexual misconduct around 1999.

A Tokyo High Court ruling in 2003 acknowledged that key parts of the magazine’s article were credible. The Supreme Court upheld the high court decision in 2004.

Still, one Nippon TV official said, “I perceived it as a unique thing in showbiz world.” Another said about the allegations against Kitagawa, “I took it lightly as entertainment gossip.”

“It’s deeply regrettable that we overlooked the opportunity to report on (the sexual abuse) when the court recognized the allegations,” Ken Isaji, head of the news department, said in the program. “That consequently resulted in more victims.”

Nippon TV also explained why it was reluctant to report on the allegations against Kitagawa, who died in 2019.

“For more than 20 years, there has been a perception and atmosphere within our company that if we upset (the agency), we would not be able to cast or cover Johnny’s entertainers,” announcer Takahiko Fujii said.

The TV station also disclosed that it delayed coverage in 2018 on an 18-year-old entertainer belonging to the agency who was referred to prosecutors on suspicion of forcible indecency.

Although Nippon TV had information that the teenager was being referred to prosecutors, the news and programming departments discussed their approach, and senior news department officials took a cautious stance.

That led to delays in coverage compared with other media companies.

“If you ask me if it was pandering, I think it is,” a senior official at the time said.

Nippon TV also examined its response when the BBC aired a one-hour documentary in March that detailed Kitagawa’s suspected sexual assaults.

It said its reporters were “reluctant to even discuss whether to report” on the documentary, and that they made their decisions without consulting senior news department officials.

That led to a halt in news coverage of the BBC documentary.

Isaji said there were no moves from the agency to stop the reporting.

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