Johnny Kitagawa sexual assault scandal: J-pop agency to set up separate talent management unit

J-pop talent agency Johnny & Associates Inc. will spin off operations of its main company to establish a separate entity focusing on talent management, the Nikkei reported.

The Japanese, family-held firm will focus on compensation for hundreds of victims an investigation concluded were sexually abused by its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa, over more than four decades, Nikkei said on Saturday. The agency – whose name is better known than many of its individual stars – recently acknowledged it failed to stop Kitagawa’s serial sexual abuse.

The new company may be named based on suggestions from fans, the newspaper said.

A host of brands have already dropped the company’s stars in recent weeks over the abuse by Kitagawa, who had engineered the birth of J-pop mega-groups that amassed adoring fans across Asia before his death aged 87 in 2019.

Japan’s national broadcaster NHK on Wednesday said it was cutting ties with the agency.