Fans demand Johnny's talent agency investigate sexual abuse claims

Bit late considering the guy’s six feet under.

Concerted efforts to ensure thorough compliance moving forward? Third-party committee to investigate the veracity of sexual abuse claims? How about police and prosecutor involvement, you know, like this kind of repeated abuse surely warrants? And how about expanding it to all the other "talent agencies", like perhaps those "managing" young girls, as well?

the firm investigate allegations of sexual abuse by its late founder Johnny Kitagawa.

To investigate, they would have to be admitting that there (cough, cough) could possibly be a problem.

Absolutely, no chance of even that happening.

So the firm will investigate itself?

Wow. I wonder how that will turn out.

They should absolutely investigate it. Look at some of the American cases being awarded millions in damages. Compensate these poor human beings properly. It's disgusting.

Also, investigating themselves? Bad idea. Of course they aren't going to want to lose money over this. They should be audited and the police should investigate the blatant abuse.

How about demaning the police investigate?

Good luck with that.

It would reveal the entire operation to be a human trafficking racket disguised as a music management company incoporated by and for the sexual gratification of one J. Kitagawa.

Getting to the bottom of this would reveal who knew what was happening and how young men were being forced into sex w/ Johnny to get a leg up. It would reveal which top-level stars knew, participated in, enabled, or were victims of Johnny's perversion. (What SMAP and Arashi knew/experienced are top of mind). And it would demand civil and criminal accountability.

And J is dead and in a jar. So he never has to be held accountable.

So while I am rooting for the victims, I bet that the whole thing is going to get swept under the rug (or into Johnny's urn) and the "jimusho" system will carry on shoving marginal "talents" down our throats, skimming off most of their economic earnings as "fees" and forcing young men (and women) into sexual submission for the sake of a shot at their dreams.

I watched parts of the conference with Kauan Okamoto the other day. Based on what he said it seems like it wasn't so much an open secret as it was just open. Parents sending their teenage kids to go stay at Johnnys apartment so they could be famous. He had piles of futons so large groups of boys could stay there. Alcohol absolutely everywhere. Johnny protected his identity so well they didn't even have a photo of him, just an artists impression. It seems his whole business was just to fuel his life as a predator. It must have taken a lot of courage for Kauan to answer all the questions and recount his experience.

30+ years of allegations to just investigate themselves… I’m sure they will find something and consider changes

Im just surprised that it took this long for anything to come out. The Japanese harvey weinstein. I watched the bbc documentary and was shocked that many of the boys that he abused still think that he helped their career, and that he was a nice guy !!!

In the BBC report, it stated that parents of one child invited Johnny to their home and made their son sleep in the same room with him. So many, including parents, knew what was going on but.....all for money and fame. It's not that different from forced prostitution.

Actually this is not unusual in the world of entertainment. I’ve heard of cases in America and Britain that are the same. A famous entertainer is attracted to young boys and girls.

Actually, shouldn't the government be prosecuting this company now that these allegations have been made public?

The article says that Penlight is seeking apologies, 'among other actions'.

The company's official response sounds like weasel-wording of the worst sort. They said something about 'making efforts to comply, moving forward' but what on earth does that mean? Comply, oops, no, make effort to comply, with what, a police investigation if ever one is launched? This sounds like extreme negativity, dressed up to look like compliance.

The Japanese harvey weinstein.

 Please don’t get me wrong; Harvey is an absolute scumbag and deserves everything coming to him and more. His victims have my utmost empathy.

But Perv Harvey doesn’t hold a candle to J. Kitagawa. The number of victims. His absolute control over their lives. The deafening silence. The sheer mendacity of his sexual predation.

I understand the desire to use a benchmark to make his perversion easier to understand, but there very well be none with the possible exception of Epstein.

EFDToday  12:49 pm JST

The Japanese harvey weinstein.

 Please don’t get me wrong; Harvey is an absolute scumbag and deserves everything coming to him and more. His victims have my utmost empathy.

But Perv Harvey doesn’t hold a candle to J. Kitagawa. The number of victims. His absolute control over their lives. The deafening silence. The sheer mendacity of his sexual predation.

I understand the desire to use a benchmark to make his perversion easier to understand, but there very well be none with the possible exception of Epstein.

Both scumbags but Johnny preyed on minors.

JapantimeToday  12:11 pm JST

Actually this is not unusual in the world of entertainment. I’ve heard of cases in America and Britain that are the same. A famous entertainer is attracted to young boys and girls.

Jimmy Saville and Rofl Harris in the UK and Bill Cosby in the US. Sadly there are many more too.

This guy has been known to do this for decades & NOTHING was ever done, they should shut down this company PRONTO!!!

The perp is friggin dead now, Japan can you belated do whats RIGHT!!!!

I saw that BBC documentary, absolutely vile going ons, incredibly upsetting and the apathy of the public seems bizarre to say the least.

It's typical of Japanese culture to have an apathy and not even care about what SMAP, etc. are about.

While Kitagawa is obviously the predator, it is enabled by the so called stars created by his boy bands, and SMAP members, who have gone on to fame and fortune in Japan, have no presence in the sexual predation of Johnny's jimushou. What it did was allow for it to continue on and on, with more children victimized by Johnny and their entire organization, and segue to Japan, as a whole.

Guys like Kimura Takuya are complicit and no one in Japan cares, they still love Kimutaku, they still love Johnny.

It's pathetic and a reason why there is polarity in how the world looks at Japanese culture.