One of the issues garnering the most media attention today in Japanese society is the Johnny Kitagawa sexual abuse and harassment scandal. Now, I am by no means an avid TV watcher, and entertainment stories are outside my wheelhouse, but I would like to explore this because it seems to me that this issue, rather than being an entertainment story, is a case that symbolizes human rights issues, corporate governance, compliance, and in a broader sense, the backwardness of Japanese society.

To summarize the issue, the late Johnny Kitagawa, who was the owner-manager of Johnny & Associates, committed human rights violations, including sexual assault and harassment, against young performers belonging to his agency over many, many years. However, this is not the only problem, and I think it is important to discuss all of the related problems separately, although that does not seem to be the tone of the press or the public’s attitude toward the issue. Putting it the way I see it might look something like this:

1) There is Johnny Kitagawa’s individual crime of taking advantage of the dreams and desires of young people who wanted to make it big as performers to perpetrate sexual assault and harassment.

2) There is the problem of (former) Johnny & Associates, which was aware that these crimes were being committed within the company, but was either complicit in or covered them up over many, many years.

3) There is the problem that despite the fact that the crimes of Johnny Kitagawa, who had enormous social influence, had often been raised in the form of tell-all books and media reports, or otherwise circulated, they were not properly investigated and reported on. (In 1999, Johnny Kitagawa’s side filed a lawsuit against Bungeishunju for conducting a media campaign on this issue in the Shukan Bunshun news magazine, and in 2004, the Supreme Court ruled that the article was true, but not a word about it appeared in the media.)

4) Similarly, there is the problem of how the mass media as well as major corporations, by engaging in business with Johnny & Associates through program and advertising deals, became complicit in supporting a company with such problematic organizational practices. (In this regard, there are reports that Kozo Takaoka, former president and CEO of Nestle Japan Ltd., did not use performers from Johnny & Associates for commercials or promotions during his tenure from the standpoint of governance and compliance regulations.)

I get the feeling from recent press conferences and news reports that they are mixing all of these issues together when they should be treating them as separate issues. It’s almost laughable, the reports about how journalists asking questions at the press conference were not treated fairly. I find it ludicrous that such things are being reported so extensively when they hardly have a thing to do with the essence of the problem.

I expect that in the future, the company handling compensation will be separated from the talent agency, and steps will be taken to resolve the problems of the past. On the other hand, the issues I brought up in 3) and 4), which could be called “gray zone” issues, have not been discussed in depth. I have suggested here that the issue may lie not just with the mass media and major corporations, but more fundamentally with the backwardness of Japanese society, an insular society characterized by reticence, excessive deference to others, and conformity. I think it would be a good thing if an incident like this were to lead to deeper discussions on these points, but that doesn’t seem to be where we are headed…

Hirotaka Shimizu
Chairman and CEO
Kamakura Shinsho, Ltd.