By way of Related Press
TOKYO: Kazuya Nakamura says he was once 15 when some of the tough males in Jap leisure historical past compelled him to have intercourse whilst he was once a part of a troupe of backup dancers controlled by way of the mythical ability agent.
A minimum of a dozen different males have come ahead this 12 months to mention they have been sexually assaulted as youngsters by way of boy band impresario Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, starting with 3 who spoke anonymously to the BBC for a documentary broadcast in March.
The tale has all of the components of a significant #MeToo reckoning, however in Japan, the reaction has been muted.
Whilst opposition politicians arrange a committee in parliament to analyze, and the ability company Kitagawa based promised to do the similar and introduced a temporary apology, the scoop nonetheless hardly ever makes the entrance pages or lead tv information announces.
Kitagawa shrugged off equivalent allegations for many years. Nationwide media virtually utterly not noted the tale, and Kitagawa’s industry endured to thrive, even if a Tokyo appeals court docket discovered a number of accusers to be credible in a libel case in 2003. When Kitagawa died, he was once honoured with an enormous funeral that crammed a stadium.
Nakamura hopes that this time, Jap society will recognize what came about to him.
“I simply wish to talk the reality,” Nakamura mentioned. “It came about.”
The Related Press does no longer most often determine individuals who say they have been sexually assaulted, however Nakamura has selected to spot himself within the media.
Kitagawa’s company, Johnny and Friends mentioned in line with the AP’s request for remark that every one issues were positioned underneath investigation, and that it is going to additionally lend a hand with the “psychological care” of those that come ahead.
Allegations have been in large part not noted for many years
In 1999, the Jap weekly mag Shukan Bunshun wrote in a chain of articles in response to nameless interviews with former performers that Kitagawa compelled boys to have intercourse.
Kitagawa sued the mag for libel in 2000, starting a four-year prison combat that ended with an appeals court docket discovering that “it was once demonstrated that the sexual harassment was once factual,” and the testimony of the accusers, who seemed in court docket anonymously, was once dependable.
In Japan, the imported word “sekuhara,” quick for “sexual harassment,” is used to confer with a wide variety of sexual misconduct.
Alternatively, the mag was once ordered to pay damages over assertions that Kitagawa gave minors cigarettes and alcohol.
Mainstream Jap media virtually utterly not noted the tale. No prison fees have been filed, and Kitagawa and his company remained in style and strong.
Toshio Takeshita, who teaches journalism at Meiji College in Tokyo, blames comfortable relationships between company media and leisure corporations for the lengthy silence. Get admission to to stars is very important to media corporations, so that they’re regularly afraid to pass tough leisure figures.
Nakamura describes a 2002 attack
Nakamura joined the Johnny’s Jr. backup dancers in 2001, after his mom helped him observe.
Johnny’s Jr. is step one at the ladder for lots of aspiring Jap male performers, a slightly paid coaching camp for dancers and singers. Masses of boys observe with the crowd annually, and essentially the most a hit are picked to accomplish along stars represented by way of Johnny’s. A make a choice few turn into stars themselves.
Nakamura mentioned that on Oct. 19, 2002 — he recollects the precise date — he spent the night time at Kitagawa’s house after a efficiency on the Tokyo Dome stadium.
Kitagawa incessantly invited dozens of boys to stick at his house, which had a swimming pool and was once stocked with snacks and video video games, consistent with Nakamura and different accusers.
Nakamura mentioned he was once dozing in a mattress with two different Johnny’s Jr. individuals, mendacity within the center, when Kitagawa, then 70, compelled him to have intercourse. He simply closed his eyes and prayed it could be over. The opposite two boys saved quiet, dozing or feigning sleep.
The next day, Nakamura mentioned, Kitagawa passed him one or two 10,000 yen ($125 on the time) expenses. He refused, however Kitagawa squeezed the cash into his hand.
He carried out once more that night. “While you’re on level on the Tokyo Dome, the view of the penlights is so gorgeous,” he mentioned. “It was once nonetheless so gorgeous, however I couldn’t really feel the enjoyment.”
He stopped going to the dance classes.
For years, Nakamura felt ashamed and instructed only some shut buddies and his mom.
He mentioned that he determined to wreck his silence after some other accuser got here ahead previous this 12 months. Kauan Okamoto alleged in a press convention on the Overseas Correspondents’ Membership in Tokyo that Kitagawa compelled him to have intercourse many times, a month after the BBC’s documentary aired. Okamoto was once the primary consumer in many years to accuse Kitagawa with out anonymity.
Okamato mentioned he was once assaulted starting in 2012, a decade after Nakamura. It made Nakamura remorseful about no longer coming ahead faster.
He gave an interview to Shukan Bunshun in June, and was once requested to talk to the committee in parliament later that month.
Irritating apologies
In Would possibly, following a brand new sequence of public allegations and the beginning of a parliamentary investigation, the brand new head of Johnny’s apologized to fanatics in a YouTube video. Corporate President Julie Keiko Fujishima additionally employed former prosecutor Makoto Hayashi to move a three-person investigation.
Hayashi mentioned that the corporate isn’t taking into account financial repayment, however he mentioned the investigation will transfer ahead with the idea the sexual attack came about.
However Nakamura mentioned he couldn’t succeed in the investigators.
He crammed out a sort at the corporate’s web site to participate within the investigation, he mentioned, and was once given a time for a telephone name with an administrative assistant, which resulted in some other name, after which an electronic mail about scheduling but some other, nonetheless no longer with Hayashi or his crew. Nakamura gave up after two weeks of backward and forward.
Hayashi declined to be interviewed for this tale, and mentioned he didn’t have a timeline for finishing the investigation.
Nakamura mentioned he was once making plans Japan’s an identical of a category motion with a number of others. Main points have been nonetheless unsure, and the case’s prison potentialities are much more unsure.
“This isn’t about successful or shedding. It’s necessary we carry our voices,” he mentioned.
Accusers hope renewed consideration will alternate attitudes
Kitagawa’s accusers, and others, are hoping that extra consideration will result in adjustments in Jap society.
Japan has been criticized by way of the U.N. for no longer doing sufficient to give protection to kids, amid in style stories of corporal punishment, forget and sexual abuse by way of adults, together with oldsters and lecturers.
A prison revision that formally banned violence towards kids kicked in best 3 years in the past. Ultimate month, Japan raised the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16.
Each Nakamura and Okamoto have testified in parliament, even though the opposition, accountable for the investigation, is a great deal outnumbered by way of the ruling coalition and has little energy by itself to modify regulation.
Okamoto collected greater than 40,000 signatures on a petition to call for harder rules to give protection to kids, which he submitted to parliament closing month.
Yoichi Kitamura, a legal professional who defended Shukan Bunshun within the libel lawsuit and is giving prison recommendation to Nakamura and different accusers, mentioned the case is usually a turning level in Jap attitudes.
However he’s been disillusioned ahead of.
Throughout the trial, Kitamura mentioned, “I felt: We were given him.”
Now, many years later, he’s once more serving to Nakamura and others search answer.
Nakamura mentioned that Kitagawa’s accusers doubt {that a} second like this may come once more.
“All of us really feel that that is our closing probability,” he mentioned.
TOKYO: Kazuya Nakamura says he was once 15 when some of the tough males in Jap leisure historical past compelled him to have intercourse whilst he was once a part of a troupe of backup dancers controlled by way of the mythical ability agent.
A minimum of a dozen different males have come ahead this 12 months to mention they have been sexually assaulted as youngsters by way of boy band impresario Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019, starting with 3 who spoke anonymously to the BBC for a documentary broadcast in March.
The tale has all of the components of a significant #MeToo reckoning, however in Japan, the reaction has been muted.googletag.cmd.push(serve as() googletag.show(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); );
Whilst opposition politicians arrange a committee in parliament to analyze, and the ability company Kitagawa based promised to do the similar and introduced a temporary apology, the scoop nonetheless hardly ever makes the entrance pages or lead tv information announces.
Kitagawa shrugged off equivalent allegations for many years. Nationwide media virtually utterly not noted the tale, and Kitagawa’s industry endured to thrive, even if a Tokyo appeals court docket discovered a number of accusers to be credible in a libel case in 2003. When Kitagawa died, he was once honoured with an enormous funeral that crammed a stadium.
Nakamura hopes that this time, Jap society will recognize what came about to him.
“I simply wish to talk the reality,” Nakamura mentioned. “It came about.”
The Related Press does no longer most often determine individuals who say they have been sexually assaulted, however Nakamura has selected to spot himself within the media.
Kitagawa’s company, Johnny and Friends mentioned in line with the AP’s request for remark that every one issues were positioned underneath investigation, and that it is going to additionally lend a hand with the “psychological care” of those that come ahead.
Allegations have been in large part not noted for many years
In 1999, the Jap weekly mag Shukan Bunshun wrote in a chain of articles in response to nameless interviews with former performers that Kitagawa compelled boys to have intercourse.
Kitagawa sued the mag for libel in 2000, starting a four-year prison combat that ended with an appeals court docket discovering that “it was once demonstrated that the sexual harassment was once factual,” and the testimony of the accusers, who seemed in court docket anonymously, was once dependable.
In Japan, the imported word “sekuhara,” quick for “sexual harassment,” is used to confer with a wide variety of sexual misconduct.
Alternatively, the mag was once ordered to pay damages over assertions that Kitagawa gave minors cigarettes and alcohol.
Mainstream Jap media virtually utterly not noted the tale. No prison fees have been filed, and Kitagawa and his company remained in style and strong.
Toshio Takeshita, who teaches journalism at Meiji College in Tokyo, blames comfortable relationships between company media and leisure corporations for the lengthy silence. Get admission to to stars is very important to media corporations, so that they’re regularly afraid to pass tough leisure figures.
Nakamura describes a 2002 attack
Nakamura joined the Johnny’s Jr. backup dancers in 2001, after his mom helped him observe.
Johnny’s Jr. is step one at the ladder for lots of aspiring Jap male performers, a slightly paid coaching camp for dancers and singers. Masses of boys observe with the crowd annually, and essentially the most a hit are picked to accomplish along stars represented by way of Johnny’s. A make a choice few turn into stars themselves.
Nakamura mentioned that on Oct. 19, 2002 — he recollects the precise date — he spent the night time at Kitagawa’s house after a efficiency on the Tokyo Dome stadium.
Kitagawa incessantly invited dozens of boys to stick at his house, which had a swimming pool and was once stocked with snacks and video video games, consistent with Nakamura and different accusers.
Nakamura mentioned he was once dozing in a mattress with two different Johnny’s Jr. individuals, mendacity within the center, when Kitagawa, then 70, compelled him to have intercourse. He simply closed his eyes and prayed it could be over. The opposite two boys saved quiet, dozing or feigning sleep.
The next day, Nakamura mentioned, Kitagawa passed him one or two 10,000 yen ($125 on the time) expenses. He refused, however Kitagawa squeezed the cash into his hand.
He carried out once more that night. “While you’re on level on the Tokyo Dome, the view of the penlights is so gorgeous,” he mentioned. “It was once nonetheless so gorgeous, however I couldn’t really feel the enjoyment.”
He stopped going to the dance classes.
For years, Nakamura felt ashamed and instructed only some shut buddies and his mom.
He mentioned that he determined to wreck his silence after some other accuser got here ahead previous this 12 months. Kauan Okamoto alleged in a press convention on the Overseas Correspondents’ Membership in Tokyo that Kitagawa compelled him to have intercourse many times, a month after the BBC’s documentary aired. Okamoto was once the primary consumer in many years to accuse Kitagawa with out anonymity.
Okamato mentioned he was once assaulted starting in 2012, a decade after Nakamura. It made Nakamura remorseful about no longer coming ahead faster.
He gave an interview to Shukan Bunshun in June, and was once requested to talk to the committee in parliament later that month.
Irritating apologies
In Would possibly, following a brand new sequence of public allegations and the beginning of a parliamentary investigation, the brand new head of Johnny’s apologized to fanatics in a YouTube video. Corporate President Julie Keiko Fujishima additionally employed former prosecutor Makoto Hayashi to move a three-person investigation.
Hayashi mentioned that the corporate isn’t taking into account financial repayment, however he mentioned the investigation will transfer ahead with the idea the sexual attack came about.
However Nakamura mentioned he couldn’t succeed in the investigators.
He crammed out a sort at the corporate’s web site to participate within the investigation, he mentioned, and was once given a time for a telephone name with an administrative assistant, which resulted in some other name, after which an electronic mail about scheduling but some other, nonetheless no longer with Hayashi or his crew. Nakamura gave up after two weeks of backward and forward.
Hayashi declined to be interviewed for this tale, and mentioned he didn’t have a timeline for finishing the investigation.
Nakamura mentioned he was once making plans Japan’s an identical of a category motion with a number of others. Main points have been nonetheless unsure, and the case’s prison potentialities are much more unsure.
“This isn’t about successful or shedding. It’s necessary we carry our voices,” he mentioned.
Accusers hope renewed consideration will alternate attitudes
Kitagawa’s accusers, and others, are hoping that extra consideration will result in adjustments in Jap society.
Japan has been criticized by way of the U.N. for no longer doing sufficient to give protection to kids, amid in style stories of corporal punishment, forget and sexual abuse by way of adults, together with oldsters and lecturers.
A prison revision that formally banned violence towards kids kicked in best 3 years in the past. Ultimate month, Japan raised the age of sexual consent from 13 to 16.
Each Nakamura and Okamoto have testified in parliament, even though the opposition, accountable for the investigation, is a great deal outnumbered by way of the ruling coalition and has little energy by itself to modify regulation.
Okamoto collected greater than 40,000 signatures on a petition to call for harder rules to give protection to kids, which he submitted to parliament closing month.
Yoichi Kitamura, a legal professional who defended Shukan Bunshun within the libel lawsuit and is giving prison recommendation to Nakamura and different accusers, mentioned the case is usually a turning level in Jap attitudes.
However he’s been disillusioned ahead of.
Throughout the trial, Kitamura mentioned, “I felt: We were given him.”
Now, many years later, he’s once more serving to Nakamura and others search answer.
Nakamura mentioned that Kitagawa’s accusers doubt {that a} second like this may come once more.
“All of us really feel that that is our closing probability,” he mentioned.
