Several Japanese companies have decided to stop using stars who are represented by Johnny & Associates, an entertainment company at the center of a sexual assault scandal
Several major Japanese companies have decided to stop using stars who are represented by Johnny & Associates, an entertainment company at the center of a sexual assault scandal. Beverage maker Asahi Group Holdings — known for its Super Dry beer — will no longer air its ads featuring Junichi Okada, Toma Ikuta and Sho Sakurai, the company said Tuesday, and there are no plans to sign singers, dancers or actors affiliated with Johnny’s. Other companies, including Japan’s flagship carrier Japan Airlines and major insurer Nippon Life Insurance Co., are following suit in distancing themselves from the scandal.
Confronted by a sexual abuse scandal of mammoth proportions, talent agency Johnny & Associates Inc. held a long-overdue news conference Sept. 7 and admitted that Johnny Kitagawa, its late founder, molested numerous aspiring pop idols, all boys and likely in the hundreds, over the course of decades.
Nine days after an investigation found that a powerful Japanese talent agent had abused hundreds of young performers, his niece resigned Thursday as president of his former company and made an apology punctuated by repeated, lengthy bows. Julie Keiko Fujishima announced she was stepping down as president of Johnny & Associates, the agency founded by…
Julie Keiko Fujishima, president of Johnny & Associates Inc., one of Japan's most prominent talent agencies, will step down amid allegations its late founder had sexually abused teenagers aspiring to become pop singers for decades, a source related to the matter says.