23/08/11 17:17:26.87 txB8/WSS0.net
LEGAL NEWS
08/9/2023
U.N. Slams Response to Johnny Kitagawa Sexual Abuse Scandal
URLﾘﾝｸ(www.billboard.com)
Boybands created by the late Japanese pop mogul not only dominated the pop charts but their members became ubiquitous onscreen, giving him immense power that he wielded to facilitate the abuse.
BY THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
An investigation by the U.N. Human Rights Council has concluded that the late Johnny Kitagawa, for decades the most powerful man in Japanese show business, abused hundreds of boys, and that the agency he founded has still not taken responsibility for the crimes.
Pichamon Yeophantong, a member of the U.N. working group which visited Japan, also criticized the inaction of the government and said it needed to act as “the primary duty bearer to ensure transparent investigations of perpetrators and that victims obtain effective remedies.”
The working group “observed deeply troubling issues” across the Japanese media and entertainment industry, according to Pichamon, who said that the absence of codes and rules around workplace behavior contributed to a culture of “impunity for sexual violence and harassment.”
Born John Hiromu Kitagawa in Los Angeles to a Buddhist priest in 1931, Kitagawa went back and forth between L.A. and Tokyo in his early life and began working at the U.S. embassy in Japan in the 1950s. While there, he recruited a group of teenagers to join a boyband he would manage and christen Johnnys, the name given to the multitude of groups he would go on to create. In 1962, he founded Johnny & Associates Inc. It was instrumental in creating the ‘idol’ group phenomenon, spawned megastar groups such as SMAP and Arashi, and only handled male talent.