In Japan, Tarnishing a Star Maker
Jan. 29/2000 -- In the cutthroat world of Japanese show
business, which is dominated by teenage idols, few people exercise the power and creative genius of Johnny Kitagawa.
As president of Johnny's Jimusho, the country's top talent agency, Mr. Kitagawa has a knack for creating young male stars who sing, dance, act and make him millions of dollars along the way.
So influential is the 68-year-old Mr. Kitagawa that media analysts and
reporters say he has tightly controlled what newspapers, magazines and television programs report about his clients and himself.
Indeed, no credible media organization in Japan had crossed him until last fall when Shukan Bunshun, one of Japan's largest magazines, began publishing a series of articles accusing him of having sexual liaisons with teenage boys he had groomed for stardom.
"If you're a television station and you don't comply with Johnny's
Jimusho's wishes then all the popular stars will be withdrawn from your
programs, your variety shows will not get any interviews with celebrities, and your ratings will plummet," said Masaru Nashimoto, an entertainment reporter.
"The same thing goes for publications," he added.
Since the articles began appearing in late October, Mr. Kitigawa's agency has declared war on the magazine. It has accused Shukan Bunshun of publishing lies, filed a libel suit and denied its requests for promotional photos and interviews with acts managed by Mr. Kitagawa. The magazine's sister publications have also been denied access
to Mr. Kitagawa's groups.
None of Japan's other major news media have reported the magazine's accusations or Mr. Kitagawa's lawsuit. Neither have they taken note of several tell-all books written in recent years by men who claimed that as young boys Mr. Kitagawa forced sex on them and others.
Hiroshi Fujita, a journalism professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, said he was not surprised. The Kitagawa story, he said, reflects the well-known weaknesses of the Japanese press.
"The Japanese media tend to be quite cautious and timid
when it comes to sensitive subjects like sex, the royal family and right-wing groups," Mr. Fujita said. "Only if the authorities launch an investigation of Mr. Kitagawa, we can expect widespread media coverage."
Most reporters rely on official news sources and rarely dig up information beyond that provided by government agencies, corporations and public relations firms. Many reporters belong to official press clubs established by government ministries, and the reporters dutifully report what the ministries want to say.
Kiyondo Matsui, Shukan Bunshun's editor in chief, is proud of the Kitagawa stories because after the first article appeared, his magazine received a flood of information from boys and men who had been part of Johnny's Jimusho.
The information was so compelling that the magazine, despite pressure from Mr. Kitagawa's lawyers, decided to proceed with what became a 10-part series.
For two months, reporters at Shukan Bunshun interviewed about a dozen teenage boys. While initially reluctant to talk, the boys eventually recounted their experiences after assurances that their identities would not be disclosed.
The articles have sent shock waves across the entertainment business, not only because of their graphic descriptions but also because of their potential to dethrone Mr.Kitagawa, the industry's most powerful broker.
"This is the first time that a publication with a good reputation and a large circulation has written about this," said Jinichiro Sudo, a former entertainment reporter who is now a local assemblyman in Tokyo.
For the moment, however, Mr. Kitagawa's reign appears as strong as ever. He declined to be interviewed for this article, but his lawyer, Tsugio Yada, said in an interview that the sexual abuse allegations
against his client were a "complete fabrication."
"Johnny Kitagawa is a good person with a great reputation, and no one believes the lies that were published," Mr. Yada said. "Writing a story based on the confession of people who are now separated from the talent agency is not a reliable way of reporting."
According to the articles, the boys took part in Mr. Kitagawa's
talent training corps, in which they received singing and dancing lessons and did promotional activities in the hope of making it into one of Mr. Kitagawa's major groups.
Some of the boys told the magazine that they regularly had sexual relations with Mr. Kitagawa because they feared that if they refused he
would not advance their careers, and that boys who did refuse were ejected from the training program.
Through Shukan Bunshun, The New York Times tried to
get in touch with the boys quoted in the magazine series, but all of them refused to be interviewed.
But one former member of a 1970's era teenage group managed by Johnny's Jimusho told The New York Times in an interview that
Mr. Kitagawa raped him when he was a 12-year-old recruit.
The man reluctantly agreed to the interview on the condition that his name not be used, for fear that he might lose his job as a musician. At his request, the interview took place in a Tokyo hotel room with a reporter from Shukan Bunshun, which arranged the meeting.
Now in his 40's and married, he nervously recounted how he and other boys had suffered. After reading the initial articles in the magazine, the man said, he decided to tell his story because he was outraged that Mr. Kitagawa was continuing to sexually abuse boys.
"I didn't like what was going on," he said. "But if I said no I would have been kicked out and there was nowhere else for me to go."
According to articles in Japanese publications, Mr. Kitagawa and his older sister Mary, 71, with whom he runs the agency, were raised in Los Angeles.
Mr. Kitagawa and sister returned to
Japan in the early 1950's, and in 1962, he started his career as a manager of young male talent. Mr. Kitagawa had his first major success with the Four Leaves, one of the the decade's most popular groups.
From there, Mr. Kitagawa displayed a golden touch for forming groups aimed at teenage girls. The most profitable has been a diverse group of five young men called SMAP, whose members are the hottest draw on Japanese television.
In 1997, the most recent year in which statistics were available, AERA magazine said that Johnny's Jimusho's clients appeared in about 40 television programs and 40 commercials for products from food to life insurance.
Mr. Nashimoto, the entertainment reporter, said he regretted that his and other media organizations had been reluctant to explore the sexual abuse allegations, even after the books making similar accusations against Mr. Kitagawa were published.
"If the mass media, including myself, had fully investigated these claims a long time ago, especially when the books first came out, then maybe we could have prevented other boys from suffering abuse," he said
