Powerhouse Japanese boyband company Johnny & Associates, which is embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal referring to its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, has introduced it can change its title and cut up into two firms. In September, the pop big acknowledged that Kitagawa, who died in 2019 at age 87, had sexually abused boys signed by the company over a span of a number of a long time.
At a press convention in Tokyo on Monday, it was revealed that an exterior committee for sufferer reduction arrange by the company had obtained studies from 478 folks, 325 of whom are looking for compensation. The company, which is rebranding as Smile-Up to solely deal with figuring out and compensating victims, stated it will start funds in November, native media studies.
That Tokyo-based firm will finally be dissolved, however its performers can be part of an as-yet unnamed unbiased firm that’s being set as much as handle expertise.
“All things with the Johnny’s name will have to go,” Noriyuki Higashiyama, the corporate’s new chief and a former consumer on the company stated on Monday, per the AP. “A wounded heart isn’t easy to heal. Compensation on its own will never be enough.” Higashiyama is a TV star and singer in Japan who has additionally been accused of sexual misconduct – allegations he denied on Monday, the BBC reported.
Kitagawa was by no means charged over any of the accusations. In late August, an investigation crew discovered that he started sexually abusing boys within the Fifties, the Japan Times reported.
Rumors of his actions had been rampant all through the years, however gained renewed consideration when the BBC aired a documentary about Kitagawa earlier this 12 months. Over the summer season, the U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights stated the allegations concerned a number of a whole bunch of the corporate’s abilities.
In early September, Kitagawa’s niece, Julie Fujishima, resigned as President of the company, making a public apology to her uncle’s victims. “Both the agency itself and I myself as a person recognize that sex abuse by Johnny Kitagawa took place. I apologize to his victims from the bottom of my heart,” she stated on the time.
Although a number of the allegations had been confirmed in a civil court docket when Kitagawa was alive, he efficiently sued for defamation on a minimum of one event, the BBC reported. Most mainstream Japanese media additionally didn’t cowl the allegations for many years, prompting accusations of an business cover-up.
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