On March 6, local time, the British media BBC published an article trailer documentary "Predator: The Secret Scandal of Japanese Pop Music", revealing the "dark secret" of the late Japanese idol Godfather and former president of Japanese male artist Johnny Management Company Kitagawa & employees. For decades, Kitagawa continued to sexually abuse and exploit teenage boys under his company's umbrella.
As early as 1999, the Japanese media reported on the Kitagawa sexual assault scandal, and a Japanese court also ruled that the sexual assault charges against Kitagawa were established. However, these reports failed to attract the attention of the Japanese public. Most of the Japanese media, taking advantage of Janis' strong influence, chose to turn a blind eye. Until Kitagawa died in 2019, most Japanese still regarded him as a hero and mourned him.
Kitagawa is the creator of Japanese pop idol culture. Johnny & Associates, the male artist agency he founded, has launched many idol hit groups in recent decades, such as SMAP, Arashi, NEWS, etc., just like Japanese national idol Takuya Kimura. The company's entertainer.
Kitagawa passed away in 2019, and Japan mourned nationwide. Janis held a farewell ceremony for Kitagawa at Tokyo Dome. Many Japanese celebrity idols attended to express their condolences, and then Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe also sent a message of condolence. Young people on the streets of Tokyo said of Kitagawa this way: "He is God. ”
However, such a Japanese national treasure "idol godfather" has been exposed to a shocking scandal: he has been raping underage boys under Johnny for decades.
In 1999, two reporters from Bunchun Weekly interviewed a teenage boy who claimed to have been injured by Kitagawa . The teen said he was sexually assaulted shortly after entering Johnny's agency in high school. He also told reporters about other teenagers who had the same experience. Nakamura said that at that time, the mainstream Japanese media mostly avoided talking about the news because they "did not want to be enemies of Johnny" and "were afraid that they would not receive advertisements after reporting", otherwise they would become "The BBC said that if it has a good relationship with Janis and can invite the company's big stars to perform, Japanese media can make a lot of money from fans."