Tokyo Broadcasting System Television Inc. (TBS) not only disregarded sexual abuse allegations against showbiz guru Johnny Kitagawa, but it also tried to protect a member of his talent agency from media exposure, an investigation showed.

The broadcaster was so worried about offending Johnny & Associates Inc. that the talent agency’s “feelings” took priority in decisions for TBS news programs, according to the investigation.

TBS on Nov. 26 aired a program about the findings of the special investigation committee that examined the relationship between the broadcaster and the disgraced talent agency that is now called Smile-Up Inc.

The committee, set up by parent company TBS Holdings Inc. and led by lawyers who used to be prosecutors, interviewed 125 people, including current and past employees of TBS.

In one case, a former member of one of Johnny’s popular idol groups was caught red-handed in a public indecency incident.

When he was later released by police, some TBS workers hid his car in the company’s underground parking lot as he was pursued by reporters and camera crews.

According to the investigation, members of the TBS news bureau rushed to the parking lot, but officials of the production bureau intervened and said, “Don’t film!”

Such actions could have caused TBS “to abdicate its own responsibilities as a news organization,” the committee said.

In another case, the talent agency invited employees of various TV stations, including TBS, to Hawaii in 2014 to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Arashi, a hugely popular Johnny’s music group.

The agency covered all travel expenses.

“Appropriate actions are required when business trips are paid for by suppliers because questions could arise about the impartiality of broadcasts,” the committee said. “From a viewer’s point of view, it is a distrustful act that makes broadcasters appear indebted to the suppliers in some way.”

The committee also studied a case in which Kitagawa’s car rear-ended a minivan at a traffic light, causing injuries, in 2012.

The day after the accident, the TBS news bureau’s social affairs section obtained information about the incident on its own, and a report was scheduled to air on a daytime news program.

But the segment was never shown.

The investigative committee revealed that staff of the production bureau visited the news bureau, and a senior official of the news bureau then instructed staff to drop the Kitagawa accident report.

That same daytime news program aired a report about a traffic accident in which an actor’s car was rear-ended.

The committee said both accident reports should have been placed side by side for a discussion on impartiality before the broadcast.

But as it stands, the decision can only be taken as TBS giving special consideration for Johnny & Associates, the committee said.

According to the committee, a former member of “Johnny’s Jr.,” an umbrella term for pre-debut idols at the agency, said he was molested by Kitagawa in 1983 during a closed-door audition held at a concert hall owned by TBS.

But the committee said it could not find anyone who knew about the circumstances at the time, so it could not further examine the case.

An internal investigation committee established by Johnny & Associates found that Kitagawa, who died in 2019 at age 87, had likely molested hundreds of boys at the agency. Mainstream news media knew about the allegations of abuse decades ago but did not provide extensive coverage, it said.

Takashi Sasaki, president of TBS Holdings, said on the Nov. 26 program that the company will “reflect seriously” on its failure to report about Kitagawa’s sexual abuse until this year.

“Each and every employee, as a member of a company entrusted with the public airwaves, will keep in mind the suffering of the victims and raise awareness of the respect for human rights,” he said.

Sasaki explained that as Johnny & Associates grew larger and more influential, people in the TBS news and production bureaus increasingly exercised restraint out of concerns for the agency’s feelings.

Sasaki pledged “more independence of the news bureau.”

“We must not let the circumstances of the company’s business relationships with suppliers slow down our pen,” he said.