Former teen performers accuse an agent of sexual assault. They’re hoping it is Japan’s #MeToo second

By Associated Press

TOKYO: Kazuya Nakamura says he was 15 when one of the highly effective males in Japanese leisure historical past compelled him to have intercourse whereas he was a part of a troupe of backup dancers managed by the legendary expertise agent.

At least a dozen different males have come ahead this yr to say they had been sexually assaulted as youngsters by boy band impresario Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, starting with three who spoke anonymously to the BBC for a documentary broadcast in March.

The story has all the weather of a significant #MeToo reckoning, however in Japan, the response has been muted.

While opposition politicians arrange a committee in parliament to research, and the expertise company Kitagawa based promised to do the identical and provided a quick apology, the information nonetheless hardly ever makes the entrance pages or lead tv information broadcasts.

Kitagawa shrugged off comparable allegations for many years. National media nearly fully ignored the story, and Kitagawa’s enterprise continued to thrive, even when a Tokyo appeals court docket discovered a number of accusers to be credible in a libel case in 2003. When Kitagawa died, he was honoured with a large funeral that crammed a stadium.

Nakamura hopes that this time, Japanese society will acknowledge what occurred to him.

“I just want to speak the truth,” Nakamura mentioned. “It happened.”

The Associated Press doesn’t normally determine individuals who say they had been sexually assaulted, however Nakamura has chosen to determine himself within the media.

Kitagawa’s company, Johnny and Associates mentioned in response to the AP’s request for remark that each one issues had been positioned beneath investigation, and that it’s going to additionally assist with the “mental care” of those that come ahead.

Allegations had been largely ignored for many years

In 1999, the Japanese weekly journal Shukan Bunshun wrote in a collection of articles primarily based on nameless interviews with former performers that Kitagawa compelled boys to have intercourse.

Kitagawa sued the journal for libel in 2000, starting a four-year authorized battle that ended with an appeals court docket discovering that “it was demonstrated that the sexual harassment was factual,” and the testimony of the accusers, who appeared in court docket anonymously, was dependable.

In Japan, the imported phrase “sekuhara,” quick for “sexual harassment,” is used to consult with every kind of sexual misconduct.

However, the journal was ordered to pay damages over assertions that Kitagawa gave minors cigarettes and alcohol.

Mainstream Japanese media nearly fully ignored the story. No legal fees had been filed, and Kitagawa and his company remained common and highly effective.

Toshio Takeshita, who teaches journalism at Meiji University in Tokyo, blames cozy relationships between company media and leisure corporations for the lengthy silence. Access to stars is crucial to media corporations, so that they’re usually afraid to cross highly effective leisure figures.

Nakamura describes a 2002 assault

Nakamura joined the Johnny’s Jr. backup dancers in 2001, after his mom helped him apply.

Johnny’s Jr. is step one on the ladder for a lot of aspiring Japanese male performers, a barely paid coaching camp for dancers and singers. Hundreds of boys apply with the group yearly, and probably the most profitable are picked to carry out alongside stars represented by Johnny’s. A choose few develop into stars themselves.

Nakamura mentioned that on Oct. 19, 2002 — he remembers the precise date — he spent the evening at Kitagawa’s residence after a efficiency on the Tokyo Dome stadium.

Kitagawa repeatedly invited dozens of boys to remain at his residence, which had a swimming pool and was stocked with snacks and video video games, in keeping with Nakamura and different accusers.

Nakamura mentioned he was sleeping in a mattress with two different Johnny’s Jr. members, mendacity within the center, when Kitagawa, then 70, compelled him to have intercourse. He simply closed his eyes and prayed it might be over. The different two boys stored quiet, sleeping or feigning sleep.

The following day, Nakamura mentioned, Kitagawa handed him one or two 10,000 yen ($125 on the time) payments. He refused, however Kitagawa squeezed the cash into his hand.

He carried out once more that night. “When you’re on stage at the Tokyo Dome, the view of the penlights is so beautiful,” he mentioned. “It was still so beautiful, but I couldn’t feel the joy.”

He stopped going to the dance classes.

For years, Nakamura felt ashamed and informed only some shut associates and his mom.

He mentioned that he determined to interrupt his silence after one other accuser got here ahead earlier this yr. Kauan Okamoto alleged in a press convention on the Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Tokyo that Kitagawa compelled him to have intercourse repeatedly, a month after the BBC’s documentary aired. Okamoto was the primary particular person in many years to accuse Kitagawa with out anonymity.

Okamato mentioned he was assaulted starting in 2012, a decade after Nakamura. It made Nakamura remorse not coming ahead sooner.

He gave an interview to Shukan Bunshun in June, and was requested to talk to the committee in parliament later that month.

Frustrating apologies

In May, following a brand new collection of public allegations and the beginning of a parliamentary investigation, the brand new head of Johnny’s apologized to followers in a YouTube video. Company President Julie Keiko Fujishima additionally employed former prosecutor Makoto Hayashi to go a three-person investigation.

Hayashi mentioned that the corporate will not be contemplating financial compensation, however he mentioned the investigation will transfer ahead with the idea the sexual assault befell.

But Nakamura mentioned he couldn’t attain the investigators.

He crammed out a kind on the corporate’s web site to participate within the investigation, he mentioned, and was given a time for a telephone name with an administrative assistant, which led to a different name, after which an electronic mail about scheduling yet one more, nonetheless not with Hayashi or his crew. Nakamura gave up after two weeks of backwards and forwards.

Hayashi declined to be interviewed for this story, and mentioned he didn’t have a timeline for finishing the investigation.

Nakamura mentioned he was planning Japan’s equal of a category motion with a number of others. Details had been nonetheless undecided, and the case’s authorized prospects are much more unsure.

“This is not about winning or losing. It’s important we raise our voices,” he mentioned.

Accusers hope renewed consideration will change attitudes

Kitagawa’s accusers, and others, are hoping that extra consideration will result in adjustments in Japanese society.

Japan has been criticized by the U.N. for not doing sufficient to guard youngsters, amid widespread studies of corporal punishment, neglect and sexual abuse by adults, together with dad and mom and academics.

A authorized revision that formally banned violence in opposition to youngsters kicked in solely three years in the past. Last month, Japan raised the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16.

Both Nakamura and Okamoto have testified in parliament, though the opposition, accountable for the investigation, is significantly outnumbered by the ruling coalition and has little energy by itself to alter laws.

Okamoto gathered greater than 40,000 signatures on a petition to demand more durable legal guidelines to guard youngsters, which he submitted to parliament final month.

Yoichi Kitamura, a lawyer who defended Shukan Bunshun within the libel lawsuit and is giving authorized recommendation to Nakamura and different accusers, mentioned the case might be a turning level in Japanese attitudes.

But he’s been upset earlier than.

During the trial, Kitamura mentioned, “I felt: We got him.”

Now, many years later, he’s once more serving to Nakamura and others search decision.

Nakamura mentioned that Kitagawa’s accusers doubt {that a} second like it will come once more.

“We all feel that this is our last chance,” he mentioned.

The story has all the weather of a significant #MeToo reckoning, however in Japan, the response has been muted.googletag.cmd.push(operate() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );