Former members of the Japanese company that was once the Johnny & Associates talent agency urged that the issue of its late founder’s sexual abuse not be allowed to fade away. It’s been one year since the firm admitted that Johnny Kitagawa had committed sexual abuse. The company apologized at that time.
Three accusers made their appeal in a news conference at the Japan National Press Club in Tokyo on Wednesday. They are Shiga Yasunobu, Nagato Koji and Nakamura Kazuya. The former performers allege they were sexually abused by Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019.
Shiga noted that the scandal is slipping into oblivion, and said they will continue raising their voices to prevent further such abuse.
He also criticized the company, now re-named Smile-Up., for not holding a news conference despite saying it would since last October and having no explanation for that. He described the company’s response as insincere.
Shiga said compensation is not the end of the issue, and that the problem will happen again without understanding the whole picture of the scandal.
Nagato said that if the issue is left as it is, other children could suffer similar fates in the future.
He noted that compensation alone will not heal the victims’ emotional wounds, and said their cases should not be closed with nothing more done about it.
Nagato said there are still people who are undecided about coming forward. He called on the firm to wait for more victims to speak out.
A letter from the widow of a male victim who died last October was read out. The former performer had reportedly been subjected to slander after exposing the sexual abuse.
The letter says the widow has never met Smile-Up. President Higashiyama Noriyuki, and has received no apology from him.
It notes that the issue has been reported only in the foreign media, and the widow asks if there is in fact any media outlets in Japan.
She says she has struggled through a series of obstacles, and that her husband and family have suffered greatly from malicious slander.
The letter says she hopes the world will become a place where children can live in comfort.
Smile-Up. said on its website on September 30 that it had proposed compensation payments for 524 people out of the 999 who reported the allegations. The company said compensation has been paid to 498 people so far.
The company also said it will continue to do all it can until the last person is compensated.