This isn’t the first time charges have surfaced against Johnny Kitagawa. The guru of Japanese pop (J-pop) boy groups, who died in 2019 at the age of 87, is the target of a new testimony from a former member of a Japanese boy band, Kauan Okamoto. Now 26, the latter said on Wednesday that he was assaulted by Johnny Kitagawa “15 to 20” times from 2012, when he was only 15, until his departure from his agency in 2016. The agency Johnny & Associates founded by the pope of J-pop did not respond to several requests from AFP on this case.
The Japanese press had already mentioned acts of harassment and sexual assault for a long time, but he was never convicted. “I hope more victims will come forward, all of them, because there are so many of them,” Kauan Okamoto said. “I would also like the management of the agency, and Johnny himself if he was present today, to recognize what happened and to ensure that such things do not happen again”, a- he added. According to the singer, it was common for young recruits to spend the night in Johnny Kitagawa’s apartment. The assaulted boys were “generally aware” that rejecting Johnny Kitagawa’s advances would hurt their careers, he said. Some “even said that it was necessary [aller] home to succeed,” he added.
Blowjob and 10,000 yen
Kauan Okamoto said the first time he was assaulted by Johnny Kitagawa, he lay down next to him and touched his genitals before performing oral sex on him. According to him, his attacker gave him the next day 10,000 yen (68 euros at the current rate), without explanation. Kauan Okamoto believes that most of the “100 to 200” young talents he met at the agency suffered similar attacks. “Thanks to Johnny, my life has changed,” he said. “But I also believe that what Johnny did, to perform sexual acts on me when I was 15, and what he did to others, is a bad thing. »
The local media had already raised accusations of abuse and sexual exploitation of children against Johnny Kitagawa. In 1999, the weekly Shukan Bunshun had thus published a series of articles presenting the accusations of several boys against him. Johnny Kitagawa was awarded damages for defamation as a result of these publications, but the decision was partially overturned on appeal, the court finding that the magazine had sufficient reason to publish these accusations, according to the Kyodo news agency.