TOKYO (TR) – More than 1,000 people have filed claims of sexual abuse from Johnny Kitagawa, the former head of the talent agency once known as Johnny and Associates.
For decades, Kitagawa trained young boys to become stars within his agency Johnny and Associates. Last year, the BBC documentary “Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop” shed light on sexual abuse carried out by Kitagawa. As a result, the company changed its name to SMILE-UP and set up a consultation desk for the victims.
According to the official website of SMILE-UP.com, the number of people who have filed claims to the consultation desk at SMILE-UP.com stood at 1,001 as of July 16.
SMILE-UP.com said that it will “continue to make sincere efforts to compensate [the victims] for the damage.”
For over 50 years, Japan’s media failed to report on the sexual abuse carried out by Kitagawa despite victims having come forward. This failure continued even after Kitagawa died in 2019.
The BBC documentary said that the reason for the lapse was Kitagawa’s immense power he wielded over the media, whose outlets used his stars in their programming.
