A team of experts investigating alleged sexual abuse by late musical mogul Johnny Kitagawa delivered a scathing report Tuesday, urging Johnny’s & Associates President Julie Keiko Fujishima to step down after the family-run business left the issue unaddressed for decades.
The third-party team of experts, appointed by the talent agency in late May, interviewed 41 people for the report, concluding that Johnny Kitagawa started sexually abusing boys in the 1950s, and then at his agency from the 1970s to the 2010s.
However, “Johnny’s & Associates did not take appropriate actions, such as investigating whether the sexual abuse (allegations) against Johnny (Kitagawa) were true or not” despite various news reports and court cases, the report said.
In May, Fujishima, who is also Kitagawa’s niece, issued a public apology on the agency’s website, claiming that she was not aware of the scores of abuse allegations.
Those allegations began garnering both domestic and international attention after the BBC aired a documentary on the topic in March. Since then, several former members of Johnny & Associates have come forward with accusations.
Although the accusations go back decades — all the way to the 1950s — Kitagawa was never charged with any crime. He died in 2019 at the age of 87.