Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
TOKYO, Japan—It was an open secret to people in the Japanese media for two decades. Japanese Pop Titan Johnny Kitagawa was sexually assaulting male performers—so called ‘idols’—under his talent agency, Johnny & Associates. Especially the trainees and the new talents—young boys not even in their teens.
There’s no doubt that he was a legend in the music world. He has the Guinness World Record for the most No. 1 singles produced by an individual, 232, but the allegations against him were horrifying. John Hiromu Kitagawa (known affectionately in Japan as just “Johnny”) was reportedly abusing children as young as 11, often repeatedly, and for years. He reportedly used his position at the head of his company to intimidate, coerce, and force up to 100 boys to submit to acts ranging from massage to penetrative rape. He continued to do this until his death in 2019.
When he died, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe sent his condolences and obituaries in the Japanese media glossed over his history of sexually assaulting young boys even though some of the allegations had been made public and proven in court. The nation mourned.