The issue of “Johnny and Associates” and the problem of grooming
You mentioned the incident of Johnny Kitagawa’s sexual victimization in his presentation and it is also my big concern. Kitagawa’s sexual abuse might have started very early on, in 1960’s when he began to gather young boys around him and formed a baseball team, then later, boy bands. His sexual victimization toward young boys spanned for several decades until his death!!
In 80’s some books were published denouncing Kitagawa’s sexual misconduct. In 1999, a weekly magazine “Bunshun” covered this issue for 14 consecutive weeks. In 2000 even this issue was put in front of a special session of the Diet. Johnny’s Associates sued the magazine for libel and many boys and men testified to the involvement of Kitagawa’s in their sexual victimization . In 2003, the Tokyo High Court ruled that the testimony of the boys was credible and found the sexual abuse case to be true. Kitagawa was reported to have said that he was “unable to determine that these boys are telling a lie”. However, the mass media did not cover the story at all and Kitagawa’s sexual abuse remained unchecked, and it eventually continued until his deth in 2019.
One of the reasons why Kitagawa was not severely punished in the lawsuit in 2003 was because of the problem with the penal code on sex crimes in Japan. The law for the “crime of rape” was made a century ago (1907) where rape was only defined as sexual assault against women. It was not until in 2017 that the law was changed to “forcible sexual intercourse” which is gender-neutral (men and women can equally be victims).
