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Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates announced Monday that it will split into two entities: One named Smile-Up that will be focused on compensating victims of sexual abuse by its founder Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, and the other a talent agency that will continue working with upcoming artists.
The agency will operate under a new name, which as yet to be decided, as it moves to disassociate itself from its disgraced founder. 325 victims have come forward to claim compensation, the company stated during Monday’s press conference, per Reuters.
“We will disband Johnny & Associates and face the victims in a sincere manner,” said the agency’s president, Noriyuki Higashiyama. “The new company will create a new future with its fans.” Higashiyama replaced Kitagawa’s niece, Julie Keiko Fujishima — Kitagawa’s niece — after calls for her resignation in August.
The decision to dissolve the company comes after Johnny & Associates was compelled to launch its own investigation after a new BBC documentary aired earlier this year and new accusers came forward.The results of the investigation found the claims against Kitagawa credible and called for apologies, compensation for victims, and improved compliance and prevention measures.
The recent investigations into Kitagawa led to the discovery of press mentions of his sexual abuse as far back as the 1960s (a1965 magazine articlerefered to a court case centered around a “lewd act”).But it wasn’t until decades later that more prominent, and public, allegations emerged. Despite accusations of rape and abuse by former Johnny & Associates performers, and a major series of allegations published in 1999 by the magazineShukan Bunshun, it was only this year — after the BBC documentary and the Japanese Brazilian singer Kauan Okamotocame forwardwith accusations of his own — that enough pressure had mounted on Kitagawa & Associates to address the decades of alleged abuse.
