Rotten Mango - #259: The “Godfather Of J-Pop” Assaulted Male Trainees In Exchange For Making Them Stars (Johnny Kitagawa)

Episode Date: May 11, 2023

Johnny was a legendary figure in the world of J-Pop, known for his uncanny ability to turn unknown talents into superstars. He held the music industry, media, and A-listers of Japan under his spell, making his every command a golden ticket to success. Some saw him as a genius businessman and marketing mastermind, while others whispered that he was more akin to a devil, preying on the souls of his chosen trainees. But no one could deny the power he held, or the price he demanded for his services. Celebrities are often accused of selling their souls to the devil. Making deals with the devil. But it’s alleged that Johnny didn’t do deals and he took what he wanted. And what he wanted were the souls of every trainee he liked. He wanted his prey. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Rambles. Whether you're doing a dance to your favorite artist in the office parking lot, or being guided into Warrior I in the break room before your shift, whether you're running on your Peloton tread at your mom's house while she watches the baby, or counting your breaths on the subway. Peloton is for all of us, wherever we are, whenever we need it, download the free Peloton app today. Peloton app available through free tier, or pay to description starting at $12.99 per month. Better being better. Johnny Kita Gawa is who we're talking about today. He is said, if you've never heard

the same, he is said to be the godfather of J-pop. Have you heard of this man? No. At his prime, he was considered to be the combination of J-Y-P and Y-G and Bang-P-D all in one man. Really? He was the godfather of J-pop. He was the man that could pull a nobody from a crowd of millions of people and turn them into an international sensation. A freaking star maker.

That's what this guy was. He could take one look at someone and be like, this guy is gonna be a star one day. You are gonna be the next sensation. He would have people circling buildings, waiting in lines to see his stars. Just to get a glimpse of his stars. Global corporations would send

email after email trying to book his stars. Like you had the power to do all of that. And if you were a guy, because he only accepts mail stars, he's often credited as pioneering boy groups in Japan. So being an idol, I mean, we know this. We've heard all the K-pop horror stories. Being an idol is not easy. It know this, we've heard all the K-pop horror stories. Being an idol is not easy, it's not fun, nor is it for everyone, everybody knows this. You've got to sacrifice so much. You have to sacrifice oftentimes your family,

your friends, your social life, practically. Everything to be an idol? But you kind of guess, like, that's what I'm signing up for. Like, these idols, they signed up for it, they're going into this kind of knowing but in today's case There was more on the line than just a social life being at risk in order to become a top idol at J and A Johnny and associates Some said that you had to be a victim first

The Godfather of J-pop was allegedly one of the most prolific predators the entertainment industry had ever seen I'm talking on a global scale Alligation started to come out that Johnny was praying on the underage trainees One victim stated, boys would be sleeping in a room like a dorm The trainees were all in this building Just next to each other and rooms next to each other and bunk beds next to each other. It's not the most lavish thing as a trainee. And you would hear Mr. Kitagawa coming into one of the beds of the boys. And you would just think to yourself, it's going to be my turn next. You would pretend to be asleep,

but when Johnny finished with one boy, he would move on to the next. Then the next. finished with one boy, he would move on to the next. Then the next. So let's talk about the man that created the biggest boy group in Japan and how he got away with abusing them over and over again. As always, full show notes are available at RottenMinglePodcast.com. Today's case is really unique in the sense that it's not necessarily breaking news, okay? But the story has been back in the headlines because of a documentary that recently came out.

It's a BBC documentary. It came out in March. You can't even watch it outside of England right now without a VPN. So keep that in mind, and I'm telling you, this documentary is controversial for so many reasons. I mean, 25 million reasons. And again, this is not a new case, which makes it so much worse. There have been allegations against Johnny Kittigawa since the 90s. Kittigawa even went to trial over these allegations and lost. He lost. But he never suffered any consequences.

Wow. I actually saw a Reddit comment. I was on these Reddit forums talking about this because I also did couldn't sell to Japanese researcher for this, but they were saying how, in Japan, most people think it's just rumors. A lot of people don't even know that the trial took place in Japan. Maybe is it because he has a lot of power?

Oh, just you wait to see how much power this man has. Another comment that I saw that was startling was this man was commenting and he was saying, yeah, I've been following up on this documentary and my wife is Japanese. She's born and raised in Japan. And I told her about this documentary that came out and she said, you know, you can't believe everything you see online. And he was just kind of shocked. So that is the sentiment for a lot of Japanese people

that are in Japan, but I also see a lot of people online being like, I'm literally in Japan, I've been born in my history and people need to talk about this. But there are a whole lot of reasons of why and how he was able to get away with all of this and we're going to get into all of it. But quick disclaimer, there is heavy discussion about relations with minors and in this case we're focusing on a man that targeted male victims. And I've said this before, but I'm going to say it again for the people in the back. Kitegawa does not represent the LGBTQ community. It seems obvious, but there's like always that one comment that gets me so riled up. But if your mind needs a refresher, go to like any

other video on this channel and witness the horrendous atrocities that straight people have committed. Okay? So with that being said, have you ever hoped to be discovered? It's not an embarrassing dream, I think most of us at one point have had a dream of getting discovered, you know? There's always stories of Hollywood actresses being chased down by agents that just passed by them on the street. And they're like, you're gonna be the next Margot Robbie.

And if I'm not mistaken, that's actually how Jennifer Lawrence was discovered. She never auditioned. She was found by a casting agent. There were K-pop stars who were chased down the street in their student uniforms by casting agents from the Big Four agencies begging them to audition. It's like a what pad dream in real life. I mean, even considering how wild the entertainment world is, the way Koji was discovered is even crazier. Imagine being at a blackpink concert front row and someone motions to you and they said, we want to make you the

next black pink. What? We add black pink concert? No, no, no, no, okay, but like imagine that. Imagine your front row and YG himself is like, hey you. Come here. I'm making a new group baby monster. You're going to be a part of it.

Can you imagine? That's exactly what happened to Koji. Koji is holding his breath. He's standing completely still. He can hear the hairs vibrating on his arms because the sound of these speakers is out of this world. He had elbowed his way all the way to the front from all these teenage girls that are like the Johnny's. Okay, the group that he's seeing are called the Johnny's. He had watched every single TV aired concert since their debut. He knew all of their dances to all of their songs. I mean, yeah, you could say that he was a fan of the Johnny's. There's four Johnny's on stage, literally like Blackpink, okay?

Koji has the hard job of trying to watch every single one of them. His eyes are like bouncing, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1. He's looking at all of them. He wants to just soak it all in, and he's so focused. But from his peripheral vision, he catches a man behind the stage. Like you know how you can kind of see behind the stage? There's just like this creepy-looking, middle-aged man peaking his head out and staring directly at Koji. Okay, that's creepy. But if he's a loud-backed stage, he's not some weirdo, right?

Koji tries to focus on the Johnny's, but that man behind the stage, hat and sunglasses, is just looking at him still. Koji's glancing around a K-Ly. There's no way he's staring at me, like that's weird. It's only like I'm trespassing, right? He thinks he's in trouble. He tries to shake this feeling. He tries to focus on the performance of the Johnny's, and

he feels a hand on his shoulder. He spins around, and it's the middle-aged man from behind the stage that was staring at him. And he straight up asks him, who are you here to see? The Johnny's? What do you do for work right now? I work as a band-hand. So you're in show business, are you?

Yes, yes sir, as a band-hand. Koji said he originally thought, maybe, maybe he had been randomly chosen to go backstage and like get an autograph from the Johnny's or something, but the next part of this conversation would change Koji's life forever. The middle-aged man looked at him and said, nice to meet you son. My name is Johnny Kitagawa, manager and creator of the Johnny's, and of this whole concert. This was the Johnny. That named the Johnny's.

That's who they were named after. Koji is thinking of a way. He's like, okay, maybe I need to ask him for an autograph right now, but before he can even ask, why don't you come work with the Johnny's? We always need extra band hands. What do you think? I'll look after you. So a band hand is someone that travels with the band

and they set up and their assistants, but they're not even sound check managers. They're just helping set up the stage and stuff. And this is how Koji Matsushira became Kita Koji. That's his stage name. The all- star band member of Johnny Kita Gawa's newest band called the four leaves. Koji would have everything that he dreamed of. Wait wait so what happened he became a man. Wait what did he become a band hand

but he started as a trainee at JNA and he became the newest member of the biggest group of JNA at the time Oh, so he became also a star. A celebrity. An idol. He became an idol. Literally just discovered. Front row. At a concert.

Can you imagine? And this guy has no background like that. He grew up in a fishing village. Like he has no money. He works at a factory. And now he's the one on stage dancing, singing in front of thousands of people. He was a literal star, but he was also Johnny's newest victim. Johnny Kitagawa was the CEO and founder of Johnny and Associates, Japan's biggest

J-Pop management company. So I think YGSMJYP Big Hit or Hype, and he was also a prolific sexual predator. He assaulted countless idle trainees for more than 50 years. Kodria had no idea that he was making a deal with the devil. He wouldn't even know until he was too late. He had entered into the devil's den, that's how he describes it. And sure, he's training under this massive company and he would debut as one of the biggest boy bands, but behind all of that, there were these really, really dark things that were just going on behind the scenes.

After Koji retired, he wrote a book on everything that happened to him. He dedicated a page to call it his public warning, a cry to all the other trainees and idols at J&A agency. He detailed all of the assaults that he endured under the mentorship of what many consider a predator. And once this book comes out, the floodgates open. Allocation after allocation starts flooding out against the godfather of J-pop, one victim stated, I wish I could forget what happened. I wish I could. He once visited me when I was at home with my parents.

My parents put his, like, air mattress in the same room as mine. That night, he placed my private parts in his mouth. You wouldn't believe it. My parents were sleeping in the next room. Another victim said, Mr. Johnny liked to yell from the bottom of his lungs to call someone. Usually it'd be like, yo, come here! And then you'd have to go to the dormitory restaurant, eat with him. And the next time he'd say to a boy, yo, get in bed! That was the one you really don't want to hear. Another one

stayed at. When I was lying in my bed, he suddenly burst into the dorms. And I was alone, there was no one else in the bed. He slid in beside me, and I thought he was holding something strange. He took it and rubbed it on my private parts. It was like a sticky lotion. Then he continued to assault me. Like full essay. I was scared so I didn't turn my head to look and it just really hurt. It hurt really badly. And afterwards he asked me, do you want something? I said, I don't

want anything. He said, you definitely want something. I'm sure of it. I said, no, I just, no. In the morning, I woke up and there was $500, which was placed next to my bed. Mr. Kitsugawa also are worded another trainee who lived in the same dorm, but he was known as the star maker. He could make an idol out of thin air. He could turn anybody into a star. He could make the world fall in love with you,

but he would take your soul first. A lot of celebrities are accused of selling their souls for a fake, making a deal with the devil. To many people, Johnny Kittagawa was the devil, but he didn't make any deals. He was so powerful, he could just take your soul if that's what he wanted, and there was nothing that you could do about it.

So let's talk about J&A. It is often dubbed the boy band factory, and it is founded and run by Johnny Kittagawa. Johnny Kittagawa's parents had immigrated from Japan to the US before the US banned all immigration from Japan. Johnny was actually born in LA. Yeah, he was born in LA a decade before the start of World War II. So he's born in California is a great place to be now as an Asian American. Back then, it was not a good place to be. The US was so, so, so, so hostile against Japanese people,

which just resulted in all Asians by extension because nobody cared to recognize the difference and nobody cared to recognize that Asia has made up of a lot of different countries. It was pretty rough for the Ketagawa family. Johnny had two older siblings and they all probably suffered some form of discrimination and racism growing up.

So the whole family, when Johnny's like, 10, get deported back to Japan. The government is like, we want everyone fucking out of here. Yeah, this is one year before the US starts putting Japanese Americans into concentration camps. So they narrowly avoided this, but it doesn't seem like it gets better for Johnny in Japan. I'm not exactly sure how accurate this is, but there's not much that I could find on Johnny's childhood. Apparently, he narrowly avoided an air raid at one point in Japan. So the guy is just like going through a war, and this world war is heavily impacting him. When he 16, war is over. The family moved back to LA and LA is just not what you think it is today.

It's not big, it's not diverse. It was still predominantly dominated by white people who had a lot of Asian hate left over from the war. Like, what's new? I get it. Like, people lost family members and friends in the war, but they took it out on their Asian neighbors who were also American born citizens. It's like, what's born citizens. Where's the common sense? It is not in this room. So Johnny spent most of his time in a place called Little Tokyo in LA. It's like a small area near downtown that's got a lot of Japanese shops, restaurants, grocery stores.

And it's just a way for Johnny to shield himself from the hate. He freaking loved it in Little Tokyo. He would hang out there every single day and he loved going to the theater. He loved watching movies and he just had a thing for show business from the get-go. Like he loved it. He starts translating for shows that are coming into town so if there was like a Japanese singer

that would come into Little Tokyo, he would offer to translate for free. Japanese singers would come in tour LA. He would be like, yes, on the front lines, like I can speak both languages fluently And it was pretty lucrative career path Somehow this leads to him flying back to Tokyo and translating professionally for the US Embassy in Tokyo We just know that he was translating until he was about 26 years old

That was like his main career and he was bored out of his freaking mind It is the US Embassy. He's a low security clearance translator. I'm sure most of the conversations that he's translating aren't even that juicy. They're not even privileged information between the two countries. It's just like this person lost their passport.

And in Tokyo, he decides to coach a middle school baseball team. This is so random, but a lot of people are like, yikes, okay, maybe this is where it starts, or at least that we know of, it's alleged. I don't know if he was good at baseball. I couldn't find anything in his childhood that indicated he was a baseball fanatic, that he played baseball, but he knew the rules of baseball.

So I don't know. He just taught these middle schoolers how to play baseball. And even more random and confusing, these middle schoolers were pretty good at baseball. Like it's so random. They started competing in baseball tournaments and after each game, the boys would follow Johnny back to his apartment because these are middle schoolers. Johnny is middle aged.

He would, they would follow him back and they thought it was so cool that he was this full-fledged adult. He would have all of these imported snacks from the US that were very hard to get another areas of Japan. It was just fascinating to these middle school boys. He had access to American movies that a lot of Japanese people weren't watching at the time. And Johnny's sister Mary, she's kind of pertinent to this story, but um, and also to the company later. Mary ran a bar near the US Army base in Tokyo So Johnny would take the boys there which again Imagine being a middle schooler being taken to a bar like this is the coolest thing that could ever happen to you

Of course you're gonna go they would eat spaghetti Which also at the time another rare food to find in Japan They would hang out eat spaghetti and eat, and these boys are allegedly the first victims of Johnny's predatory sexual behavior. You know how every company has like an origin story? Like, oh, the founder was in his mom's basement. You know the ones, Johnny and associates, the biggest J-pop agency at the time,

has a strange origin story. The story starts with a play called West Side Story. Side note, this is at a time where most plays did not have people singing and dancing. Like most plays where people just acting is just straight theater. And it said that singing and dancing plays were popularized by African Americans. And it's entirely possible that the emerging African American music culture had this huge influence on Johnny, considering he was super into jazz and dance. So which they never get credit for that. But anyway, so he goes, he takes four boys from the baseball team to see West Side Story, the play. They're singing on stage, they're dancing on stage, and their lives changed. It was ballet meets jazz style. The boys were so fascinated. Johnny took them again to see it the very next day, and then the next day, and the next day after,

they went practically every single day until the place stopped airing. They would all giggle on their way back home, just dancing through the streets, and they thought about how cool would it be to dance on stage. And Johnny starts thinking, this was at a time in Japan and I'm telling you he really was a pioneer for boy groups, maybe even in K-pop, because the way he did it is fascinating. At the time when you saw a group of men on stage performing and doing anything musical

related, it's kind of what you imagine a traditional band. Everyone has an instrument that they play and they're pretty sedentary on stage. Like they'll stand there and they'll play their guitar, and you have one lead singer, and most of it is just kind of a little bit of jumping with the music, but that's about it. But Johnny was like, no, what if they don't play any musical instruments, and they just focus on dancing on stage?

Which is most of the boy groups now, right? And the girl groups. Recently, with the rise of the boy groups now, right? And the girl groups recently with the rise of Elvis Presley, Johnny is like, there is so much money to be made in the teenage girl market. So in America, teenage girls were losing their mind over Elvis, freaking Presley, okay? They're going crazy, not even just teenage girls. The whole world went crazy for Elvis Presley. But Johnny felt it deep in his soul. He wanted his boys to dance. They're already dancing the moves from West Side Story and they're pretty good. Okay, they were never taught. They just watched the play a couple times and they know the moves. Johnny's like, I want to make Japanese teenage girls

go so crazy for my boys like the American girls go crazy for Elvis. Wait, and the boys were from the baseball team. Yeah. Wow. It's a really weird origin story, no? And so he goes to his older sister Mary, who runs the bar and he's like, listen, Mary, fuck the bar. We're about to make teenage girls go wild.

So they start a talent training agency together. The first group, the four boys from the baseball team, were the Johnny's. Oh, they are the Johnny's. They are the Johnny's. Wow. He trained them for the next three years, wanting them to be the next Elvis. He even invested money in taking them to LA to get more vocal and dance lessons. They even signed a contract with Warner Brothers, the Warner Brothers. They were gonna release an album in the States. It didn't really plan out the way that I was, you know, anyway, no album with the Warner Bros. But a few songs and they did have a pretty good little peak.

Johnny realized that these were the people that were around to one hand this big idea, but he needed to go a different route. He wanted even bigger and he didn't think the Johnny's could go there. So after a while, he disbanded them and focused on making Johnny and associates and his next big band, the four leaves, including Koji. The four leaves? Yeah, the four leaves. So his agency, he just wanted it to be a household name. He starts holding auditions, recruiting recruiting more talent and the process that he had is very Similar to K-pop nowadays. So you want a debut with J&A? Here's how it works. First of all, you got to be a boy. They only do boys.

I don't know if that's changed, but yeah, they've only do boys. You have descended an application. You have to attach a photo with your face and a full body shot Because you know, that's what being an idol is all about. It's your visuals. J&A was known for only wanting pretty boys. That was kind of their aesthetic. And I mean, this part isn't that crazy. Like even in K-pop every agency kind of has an overall aesthetic that they go for and you can see that in all of their trainees.

But second, if your resume is approved, you're gonna be called in for an audition. Most of the people at these auditions would be 12 to 15 year old boys. Hundreds, hundreds of them would be lined out the door. These are already the boys that pass the audition process or the resume process. Then they go in and they go in with these groups in front of a panel of judges and they do a dance, they do a song, and Johnny was on the panel at every audition. He was known for being very harsh and very decisive.

He said that he could take one look at a face and figure out if they could be a star or knock. That's it, just one glance, that's all it took. Sometimes, out of a hundred boys, like 200 boys at audition, only two would become trainees. And not every trainee debut, the rest were rejected. What you watch depends on what kind of majoring. Sometimes you're craving comedies like friends or South Park and sometimes you're more into dramas like HBO's Succession and House of

the Dragon. There's also cooking shows like Chopped and Beat Bobby Flay and even movies like The Lord of the Rings and Shazam, Fury of the Gods. Well, Max is the streaming destination that has the best of entertainment for whatever mood you're in anytime. And Plant Start at his little is $9.99 a month. Max, the one to watch. Subscription required, visit max.com What if comparing car insurance rates was as easy as putting on your favorite podcast?

With Progressive, it is. Just visit the Progressive website to quote with all the coverage as you want. You'll see Progressive's direct rate, then their tool will provide options from other companies so you can compare. All you need to do is choose the rate and coverage you like. Quote today at Progressive.com to join the over 29 million drivers who trust Progressive. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates comparison rates not available in all states or situations prices vary based on how you buy. Then the next step would be training and the ones that pass would be entered into JNA as trainees. They would have to move into the JNA dorms with other trainees and they're not just trained in voice and dancing which are are the most important, but acting and PR training, media training, everything.

It's that that Johnny was very involved during this part of the process. He is so particular about his trainees. He would practically mentor over them for every little thing. The trainees were told you are not allowed to have your own life. You're not allowed to have your own thoughts.

You're not allowed to have your own social media. We control every aspect of your image. If you thought K-pop was bad, the way that Johnny ran shit, insane. Insane. He's basically telling them, you are a commodity of my business, so you don't get to have your own identity. You are whoever I say you are. If I say you like sweets and you're a sweet boy, you like sweets and you're a sweet boy.

Everything they did, everything they said was so heavily monitored. It was really crazy. He would personally mentor each trainee and try to give them opportunities to work, you know, as backup dancers, appear in TV or in magazines. But ultimately, that's just if he liked you.

Every trainee would be forever stuck in this limbo period unless he made the decision that you could debut. Johnny was the only person that could make that decision to give these trainees an actual career. Keep this in mind. After debut, Johnny is way less involved, but the idols would shift into this very strict manager and PR world and enter the life of an idol.

Johnny and associate was basically a boy band factory. Again, this is when this stuff is so rare, boy bands back then were instrumental, they were all about the instruments and the drums and the guitar, but now you're talking about a bunch of boys, teenage boys, that are just dancing on stage. This was a completely new concept back then. And it fucking killed it.

The business model was ingenious. Johnny was a genius marketer. He understood the average Japanese person and how consumerism worked. He knew that in order for teenage girls to be able to spend money on his boy groups, he needed to not only win the love of the teenage girls, but their parents.

He's like, no mom is gonna sit there and be like, yes, my daughter, please go crazy over this half-naked man on TV. So he wanted all of his boys to be wholesome, innocent, good examples, good role models relatable. Someone that even parents could get behind when they were interviewed. That's how he made his boy groups.

And it worked. Soon enough, his boy groups were on the cover of every magazine, every single show, every single TV at every hour of every single day. They were in ads for things like real estate, like contact lenses. They were practically everywhere. Some of his artists even collaborated with big western names like Bruno Mars. JNA was one of the biggest players in Japan's entertainment industry. Not even their pop industry, just entertainment. They're releasing new groups left and right, and the only thing that they had was the ultimate power. Not just a little bit of power.

Not just a little bit of money. Ultimate power. So fun fact, Johnny did not let anyone use the idols photos without explicit permission from him. The idols were not caught outside by paparazzi. The idols were not allowed to post on social media. Photos weren't allowed to be used in newspapers or in print or even online. Even J&A's own website didn't have pictures of their idols until 2011. Wait, why? He wanted full control of photos and how they get used. He would sue people if they used any of his idols photos

without explicit permission. When it came to music, Johnny owned the rights and masters to every single song that was ever created by any of the idols ever. Johnny personally has control over the idol's image, their public image, public perception, and their literal image,

like literal photos. If anyone wanted to use a song, they would have to get permission from Johnny himself. He controlled everything, which I know what you're thinking, that's freaking annoying, why would anyone want to work with Johnny? The public loves Johnny's idols. So all of these newspapers, these magazines, these TV shows, they are begging for Johnny's permission because they will get views. They will get revenue because people will tune in as long as Johnny's idols are in their

media. He could control basically every magazine, every newspaper, every TV station, everyone, because all of his boys were the boys. And one of those boys was Koji. Koji has a really, really strong inspirational origin story. He grew up in a fishing village where everyone would scoff at him because, you know, if you tell anyone from a small town that you want to be an idol one day, they're just going to laugh at you, okay? Koji's parents could barely afford food. They're like, you're

going to be an idol. You can't even afford anything but rice right now. When it was really bad, his whole family gathered around a table of just rice and beans. And if you think about the way that a lot of Asians eat in general, it's a lot of like family sharing. So just to have rice and beans on the table, it's pretty dire financial situations. I think as a kid, Koji starts dreaming up all of these ways of making a pig. He thought, you know what, I'm gonna be an Olympian. Those are his first dream.

Olympic champion. His dream was to get a gold medal and represent Japan and make his parents proud. That was his ticket out of poverty. It's not a random dream. He actually was pretty good at gymnastics, but being an Olympian is very, very expensive. He did not have the proper gym, trainers, coaches. He's good. But there's no way he's gonna go up against

the best of the best athletes with world-class training behind them. He just had to come to terms with it. It's really hard to be an Olympian when you're broke. And life is very unforgiving. So by the time that he's 15, he ends up dropping out of high school and he's trying to support his parents. This is where his dreams of becoming an idol start. He grows up dropping out of high school and he's trying to support his parents. This is where his dreams of becoming an idol start. He grows up very fast, he tries taking all these odd jobs in the fishing village, but he decides

I need to go to Osaka, get into a factory, and send money back home, because I'm not making good income. This is where he gets exposed to the idol world. It's a bit random, but a lot of these factories, the workers would live in dorms, and they would have this little common room with a TV TV and you could eat like ramen and stuff He and his roommate were the two teenagers. That's it. Everyone else was like middle-aged men working in this factory And I guess they felt bad for the two teenage boys So every time the two teenage boys came in the TV, you know at the time they only have like ten channels and they they watch the news

you know at the time they only have like 10 channels and they watch the news. So they'd be like, poor kids. Okay, let's turn on, I don't know what a young people like and they would turn on a random show and it would always be idols dancing. Dancing and singing and Koji would get so into it, he would literally drop everything, go directly in front of the TV and dance along and these old men would just be watching and clapping and they would try to dance along too. It was like really cute okay. But Koji was the Johnny's biggest freaking fan okay. This is before they were disbanded and there were, they were Johnny's only boy band at the time. Which side note, Johnny's is now used to refer to any of Johnny Kittigo as idols. So you're like a junior Johnny if you're a trainee at JNA and then you could be like,

oh, that's a Johnny. It's just a term for, they work for JNA. Anyway, Koji forget loved it. It was the highlight of his day. Koji would go to sleep at night dreaming of his life if he were an idol. His friend was a bit more realistic and he just had fun dancing and singing. He never thought that he could ever go on stage. So Koji slowly transitions from working at this iron factory

to being a band hand. Someone that travels with the band helps him set up like an assist, right? And it's a frickin' rough job. It is not glamorous. At least for Koji it wasn't. He doesn't get paid well. He has to travel with the band in the cargo car. So he's just sitting on this cold metal floor of the band

bop in his head on the roof. And there's like guitar slamming into him drum set slamming into it. It was just miserable. And since he's from a poor fishing village, anytime the band performed in one of the big cities in Japan, people would start making fun of his accent Calling him mean words that are basically slurs to refer to country boys basically And he was just so self-conscious. He just all together stopped talking He had so much social anxiety He was just about to quit because of how rough the pay was go back to the factory When he heard the band was going to be performing at a concert

that the Johnny's were also performing at. So he's like, okay, let me just stick it through because he didn't even think he was going to get discovered. He had no plans to like go harass Johnny, get to go out and find a job. He just wanted to see them live in person. He's like, I'm going to quit after I see the Johnny's. And that's when he was discovered by Keith Gawa himself. He's like, I'm gonna quit after I see the Johnny's. And that's when he was discovered by Kita Gawa himself. That's how he became Kita Koji. And the key to part is in honor of Johnny Kita Gawa. Johnny really, really liked Koji.

He didn't think that he had a funny accent. He just thought he had a very innocent face and a good work ethic. Koji debuted with the four leaves and they were the next big hit. Koji would even do back flips on stage because remember he has a gymnastics background. And four leaves was like the one direction before one direction. Koji's hard work, it pays off, he's on TV, he's an idol, but things change. Time goes on and leaves fall.

For the four leaves, it took 10 years for the leaves to start falling apart. 10 years after they debuted, they were disbanded. Audience just wanted something new. And Koji felt like his entire world had fallen apart. I mean, this was his life, what was he supposed to do now? And this is back before, you know, a lot of idols can make a living going on variety shows

and being an entertainer, being a personality, or going into acting, like this was before that. It's just you're done. He genuinely thought that maybe he was meant to die with the four leaves. He said, our last performance as the four leaves, the boys and I sing so loud, and we dance like never before, as if we were freeing ourselves from everything

that we had experienced in the past 10 years. Fans were yelling at us, don't quit, but they were yelling for people who don't exist. It's all a facade. On the day of our disbandment, I felt like I received my kiss of death. It's such a big emotion, like I can't even imagine it. Koji said that he fell into drugs at this point. He was directionless. He was lost after disbandment. He tried to get into acting, but it didn't really catch on. It proved to be really, really hard to build a new career while struggling with substance abuse.

So all he did was write. He wrote a lot to explore his thoughts and his emotions and, and exactly 20 years after his debut, he wrote his expo say, a book dedicated to his life as an idol, and it was almost a public warning to the newest leading boy band from JNA. He warned them that they are not alone, and what they might have had to do to get where they are is not their fault.

He wanted them to know he was on their side, just in case Johnny Kutigawa was sexually assaulting them too. Koji talked about the numerous times he would walk off stage straight into Kutagawa's open arms. How he was just a teenager, but he felt like he OLD Johnny something. How he felt like if he didn't do this for Johnny, his career would be over before it even started. He exposed Johnny Kutagawa and said this was his public warning.

There is a predator out there offering to take Japan's children and train them into superstars, but he's assaulting them. It was a really, really raw book. It wasn't a way for him to get attention or like back into the spotlight, which a lot of people accused him of writing the book for that. If you know what it's like in any culture coming out with allegations of abuse against someone so popular and loved, it's terrifying. In East Asian culture, particularly in Japan, where politeness is not a positive but a mandatory where politeness is the bare minimum, this is not normal, this is not like clout, but he hoped that he could save future trainees from this type of abuse. He wrote in his book that during his

trainee days, Johnny would invite him into his room. Johnny would take his private parts into his mouth and would not stop until the deed was done, if you will. Koji said Johnny did this almost every single night for four to five years while Koji was a trainee. Koji said Johnny did this almost every single night for four to five years while Koji was a trainee. Koji said he was confusing. Because Johnny would basically convince him that these assaults were acts of love. He made it seem like he wasn't accusing him, he was just taking care of him, in a way

that every single good caretaker or guardian would. He provided these boys with everything, you know, their lives, their future, and even their family's livelihood. And Johnny knew that, even if they could see through his mental manipulation, how are they going to say no? How are these trainees going to say no? That's not an act of love. That's literally assault. There were more than enough reasons for their brains to convince themselves. Actually, maybe this is what I want too. Many of them thought that this is just the price of being an idol. Koji said that he lived with Johnny for a while, like a married couple.

But once he got famous, Koji felt like he could kind of reject Johnny's advances just a little bit. He finally felt a little bit of power. And it wasn't a lot like nowhere near what Johnny still had over him, but a little bit of something. He was still terrified of Johnny's reaction to his rejections, but Johnny didn't seem to care. Koji said that he just moved on to younger,

trainee idols. Koji said this was one of the big reasons that he turned to drugs in the first place. He thought that if the sexual assault during his trainee days was indeed love, it was just the admission price to his dream life. He just thought, this is what I have to pay. And maybe it's worth it if my parents

don't struggle anymore. So he convinces himself this. And once you debuse in an as an idol, he's like, oh, okay. This is what I work so hard for. And maybe it was worth it. And I'm just so busy. So he's busy with his schedule and everything that he had as an idol.

He didn't think too much into it. He tried not to, he just distracted himself. But once the band disbanded, he was left alone with his thoughts and he was just so torn. Side note, this is a thing that happens frequently when someone is assaulted before they've matured or mentally developed. They might believe that it's not assault, especially if they've been groomed. But a lot of times these kids will turn into adults and realize that the thoughts of having any similar relations with minors make someone to gag, they start realizing that what they

experience is not love, it's not parental love, it's not big brother love, they realize it's straight up assault. Like as an adult, they can never imagine doing that and that's when it slowly dawns on them that they were groomed. That's most likely what happened to Koji. So he releases this book and it does pave the way for a lot of other victims to come forward with their experiences.

But overall, everything is just sweeped under the rug and it's not because there's no substance behind these claims, but because J&A has such a strong grip over the media, there are a huge mega corporation at this point. If anyone was going to release any information about these allegations, JNA would cut them off from their idols. And without these idols, these news publications, newspapers, magazines, TV stations, their revenue

would be obliterated. Which is crazy because something as explosive as allegations of predatory behavior from one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry, I mean, you would imagine that it's all over the news, right? So a lot of the public, they understandably thought, well, those are just rumors. If there was evidence, it would have been on like, Sienna, and it would have been on all these big news stations.

Some people went as far to claim that Koji was just looking for another moment in the spotlight. They chalked it up to him struggling with being irrelevant. Side note, I know there might be people like, well, oh my God, people obviously put their bosses to make more money. And then they want to say something about the power and balance later. Koji, okay, first of all, that whole thinking is really messed up. But Koji wasn't even making idle money, okay? I just want to tell you, even now it's pretty common knowledge that idols, especially in J-pop, K-pop,

they still give a pretty sizable chunk to their labels. But back then, Koji was making $1,000 a month. That is calculated with inflation. Near the end, when he was the peak of the peak, like imagine he is black pink, he's B.T.S. okay? Well, maybe not on like a global scale, but you get it, like he was the top name in J-pop. He was making $17,000 a month, which is a lot don't get me wrong. But can you imagine being Taylor Swift and making $17,000 a month?

Think about how much the agency is pocketing. They're pocketing probably millions of dollars a month. Yeah, sounds like they give the idols like 0.1% of what they actually make in. Absolutely, nothing. Like, you're the id guy of the nation making 17K a month. It doesn't even make sense. The four leaves was bringing in millions of dollars of revenue for JNA every single year and Johnny was just taking it all

When the band was disbanded JNA paid them a small severance fee of $70,000. That's it $70,000 not a month just a one-time fee. They're still young There isn't that isn't even enough to retire. I mean just think about it You were bringing in millions and millions of dollars and now you don't have enough to retire You can't get a normal job because people are going to be like, Oh my god, can I get your autograph? Like, can you imagine being a cashier and they're like asking for your autograph? Your boss would fire you.

But then you can't stay in the limelight because Japanese entertainment is kind of like Korea where it's predominantly run by a couple of agencies. So if you're not signed with one of them, it's really hard to get airtime. I do think that there was a brief four leaves reunion, but other than that, he remained relatively private. Koji got married, he got divorced, eventually he settled down and had a daughter. Sadly in 2011, he was diagnosed with liver cancer, and he passed away.

What's heartbreaking is before he passed, he posted on his blog. His final entry was released by his management company and they said that Koji lived a happy life and asked his fans to not grieve for him. He even addressed Johnny and Johnny's business partner, slash sister directly, saying thank you. Ungrateful for you. He had every right to be angry and bitter about the abuse, but he wasn't. He just wanted to show gratitude to the people in the business that had made his dream come

true, even if it was only for a little while. But that doesn't change the fact that the story doesn't really have a happy ending. After Koji, many more boys become Johnny's prey. The next book to come out was written by a real Nata Kani. Nata Kani was one of the original members of the very first band. He was part of the Johnny's. He was one of the baseball boys. He had known Johnny since his middle school days, since his baseball team days, and he alleged Johnny was sexual with all of them while he was coaching baseball. He said some of their middle school baseball teammates were as young

as 11 years old when the assault started. Natacani alleged that at least for him, Johnny would invite them to his apartment, and it was the first time that Johnny and that Kanye were alone. And Johnny said that, you know, just like, be comfortable. Not to Kanye did not have anything to worry about, or at least he didn't think so. He trusted Johnny like an older brother, but that's when the sexual advances started. Johnny started touching him through his pants, Eventually, I addressed him, and it was weird because he made it seem like it was completely natural and completely normal.

He would say things like, oh, if you do this, this feels good. And he just kept going until Natcani had finished. Natcani had no idea what the hell was going on, I mean, he's still so young. This was the first few years of being a teenager and this is back in the 50s, where I don't know if they even had sex said. They had no means of figuring it out. There was really no readily accessible internet where these young kids could realize what was going on. So you thought, okay, well maybe this is how people hang out. He went back to some of his baseball teammates and they said, you know the same thing happens to me too. Once they realized that Johnny had done this to all four of them,

they thought, oh, well, then for sure, this is just a normal thing, because it happened all of us. I mean, it does feel strange, but maybe we're just young. Not to Connie said he didn't realize he was a victim of essay until he was much, much older. He said, at the time, I didn't know how important sexual behaviors were. So I didn't really feel violated.

Then when I got older, I realized how different my first experiences of sex were from other peoples. And that kind of came as a huge shock to me. I'm like, what do you mean, your baseball teacher didn't do that to you? After Nauticaini grew up and the Johnny's were no longer playing, he fell into drugs to help him cope with all these realizations. And so now Koji and Nata Kani, two of the biggest names to come

out of J&A at the time, they're coming out with these allegations. More and more boys start coming out, and side note, a lot of these boys chose to stay anonymous, keep that in mind. But one of them said, Mr. Johnny would call me. He would invite me to the dormitory to have dinner, and then he'd say, why don't you go to sleep? When I went to bed, he would call me. He would invite me to the dormitory to have dinner and then he'd say, why don't you go to sleep? When I went to bed, he would come into my room and he would get into my bed. He touched my genitals and he put them in his mouth. Then he would apply something slimy and start the penetrations. In the BBC documentary, a trainee named Junia said that he started training with JNA when

he was just 16 years old. He trained for six years, but he never debuted it. The BBC journalist asked him about his experience and he said, Johnny's main job was scouting and developing talent. Johnny always came to my lessons, rehearsals, and the shows, he always came. He would always invite us to dinner, and to the movies, or for a drive. You know, Johnny definitely was someone with certain habits. He definitely had an overly affectionate way with children.

From my experience, there was only one boy who didn't like it and ran away. The report asked, what is that referred to? Like he was affectionate with children. He would put his hands all over our bodies and fendle the precious parts. The boys were elementary or middle school aged. Most of them had no sexual experience. The former trainee said we would even joke today that our first sexual experience was with Johnny. And I'm sure many kids went along with it, had no understanding that they were being hurt, but they were also kids who understood. And we're like Johnny I love

you and went towards him and towards the assaults. In fact, my impression is that kids were fighting for Johnny's attention. So another huge thing to note, there is an obvious power imbalance here. A, the boys are brainwashed into thinking that what Johnny was doing was love and was completely normal. B, Johnny literally held their entire future in their hands. He could ruin their dreams with the snap of a finger. Also, if these boys didn't know that what Johnny was doing was wrong, they probably consider it the price of a mission into being an idol.

The reporter asked, so you wouldn't consider that a boundary was overstepped. He nervously laughed and waived his hand in front of his face. The victim on the BBC documentary said, he didn't get me that much, I wasn't sexually abused or anything. There were just some massages that went a tiny bit further. It felt like family. The reporter asked,

do you think the other boys' parents had a clue about what was going on? Yes, of course, the parents knew the truth, but they wanted their kids to get in. They'd say to their kids, you'd better offer your arse to Johnny. So it was common knowledge that Johnny was a homosexual with a liking for young boys, the parents knew,

but they didn't say no. But can you see how that crosses the boundary into something criminal? The victim says if he really was a criminal or committed a crime, he wouldn't have out of all that support. But Japan accepted him and elevated his business to the top. That's how Japan is. So there is so much to dissect from this interview.

And just a quick disclaimer, I am no therapist or psychologist, and this is not a professional analysis, but from my non-qualified perspective, I feel like the victim is almost kind of running from reality. Like, maybe he's heard other boys come forward and call Keith Gawa's actions, pedophilia, criminal, sexual assault, and rape. And I think maybe he himself doesn't want to think of himself as a victim of all of those things. He could be using Ketagawa's fame and power to justify that.

Maybe he's thinking, well, a criminal wouldn't have all of the success, a criminal would be in prison. If Japan had made this man successful and given him all of the support, he can't be evil. That's a fallacy. Someone can be a hard worker and a business genius and a master marketer and also be a pedophile and a... Why would you break into these apartments? For money, for drugs, whatever was in there. Why aren't you afraid of getting caught at doing this? No. Who's to catch us?

What a police. It was the height of the crack era, and instead of locking up drug dealers, some New York City cops had become them. I would suit up in my uniform and we're going to want some drug dealers, and I know how to do it really well. This is the inside story of the biggest police corruption scandal in NYPD history and the investigation that uncovered it all. Did you consider yourself a rat? 100% I saved my soul just like everybody else does. Listen to and follow the set, an Odyssey originals documentary podcast series available now in the Odyssey app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your shows.

I'm not a big guy man, but I love being that dirty mother f***er. The second thing is, Genia said that the boy's parents knew what Kita Gawa was doing, but they didn't care, and even told their sons to offer themselves too Johnny, if it meant that they'd become an idol. That sounds despicable. I could believe it, maybe, if it was one or two parents, but so many, I don't know how to feel about it,

like honestly, statistic wise, I'm also wondering if that's not true. Maybe it's just, I don't wanna believe that hundreds of parents would be a-okay with their sons getting abused, but maybe when Genia was an idol, the boys played Ketagawa's abuse off, like it was nothing. And maybe they said their parents were okay with it

because maybe they didn't tell their parents the true extent of the abuse. The BBC dog is controversial in the fact that it never expands on that. I almost feel like the journalist didn't know what questions to ask to get more information on this, so we just kind of skipped over it. There's gonna be more about this BBC dog in a second.

But another victim said that he was first assaulted when he was a trainee. Johnny told him to go to the bathroom and take a bath. Johnny even helped him fill the bath and the trainee genuinely thought that this, Johnny CEO founder was so kind, but then he tried to take him his clothes off. And the trainee kept telling Johnny, I can do it myself like thank you, but you can leave now,

but Johnny continued silently, undressing him completely until he was naked. Then he put him in the bath and washed his whole body like he was a doll. Then he was told to come back and he did tell his trainee friend and the trainee friend said, your dreams have been shattered but you have to put up with it or else you won't succeed. So the assaults continued. He said Johnny would bother him all night long even until he saw the sun come up. Nobody around him was quitting because of it. So he was confused whether or not this was really that bad. If it was really that bad, wouldn't all the trainees quit? Besides, there were no other adults that you could really talk to about it.

So it was hard to speak up. He said, the boys that became famous, thanks to Johnny, you know, their lives changed the moment they entered the agency. I think they're all just very grateful. But their careers are very different from the sex crimes that took place. So I think that's what makes it even tougher for victims. On one hand, you have a predator.

On the other hand, when this predator is not praying on you and assaulting you, he can be sweet and kind and a business genius that can make your career dreams come true, you almost start to reason with yourself that this is the price you pay. One victim states that they were assaulted by Johnny, but said this. To put it simply, I don't dislike Johnny. In fact, I really like him. Even now I love him. Johnny was really a wonderful person, and I owe him a lot. I still think that we are treated with a lot of love, which is why I can smile and talk about what happened now.

A lot of the victims even talk about wanting more attention from Johnny and almost fighting over him, because it was a status symbol to be favored by Johnny. It meant something for your career. One trainee said, and I think that this shows how complicated it is. This reminds me of the JMS cold situation, where girls would feel honored to be chosen as the Lord's bride, but on the other hand,

they felt absolutely disgusted by what was being done to them because they were essentially being are worded by a predator, but in their heads, they're like, I am the Lord's bride. It just became this exhausting internal mental battle that they should have never been forced to fight in the first place.

The victim said, regarding Johnny's sexual harassment allegations, if I'm honest, I don't really think it was that bad. It's true that those things are something that really happened in the dorms. I just don't think that his motives for doing what he did was that bad. You know, no one really dug deep into it. Everyone knew that it was just something that you have to go through as part of J&A, but

nobody really cared too much about it. At the time there were rumors that if you accepted Johnny's advances, you would be famous. So I don't think you can blame either side. To be honest, my dream was to be famous, so I think I would have just accepted it. Yeah, I think if it happened to I think I would have just accepted it. Yeah, I think if it happened to me, I would have just accepted it. Wow. Again.

I'm nowhere near qualified enough to begin impacting this, but let's listen to someone who is. The BBC doc did interview Nabuki, a therapist who specializes in helping male survivors of sexual abuse. He gave off really calming vibes and he just had this aura that was very, very peaceful. He said, it can be self-protection in some ways to deny that it was abuse. In order to survive, you don't want to fight the abuse. So rather than the painful traumatic sexual abuse trauma, why not make it more fun and loving in your memory? And often abusers, they will use this very natural thing to their

advantage. It's also very natural for our bodies to feel pleasure, even if we don't want it. And often abusers will even tell them, look, your body is physically reacting, so you must be enjoying it, which in the long term is going to affect with your mental perception of this abuse. That's what makes it so complicated and confusing. And Japan has what he says, a culture of shame. If something's your personal problem, you don't talk about it because it brings a burden to the people that you're talking to about. Yes, that's so. It's kind of a Korean thing as well. So any problem that you bring up to a group of people, you are now burdening them

with this problem because if they didn't know this problem existed, they would not be in a pickle where they have to think, what do we do now? Sexual abuse makes it even harder in Japan, and especially harder for male sexual abuse victims. So I know we're going to get into it, but another trainee kind of confirmed this mental manipulation that John used and they stated, we would go to Johnnie's house. His house was like Disneyland. And it's not like I was sexually harassed every single time. Besides, I came to understand if I accepted his actions,

I would gradually be appointed to better positions during TV recordings and magazine shoots. There was another trainee who rejected him, and he was always put at the edge of the stage where no one could see him. After all, I was just happy to see my band was doing well and that my bandmates were doing well too. So I thought that my actions possibly getting in the way of upsetting our band or making the band worse or even disappointing the fans, I just didn't want to do anything that would cause problems. Wow. So he's thinking that if he reject him, his bandmates will suffer and fans will

suffer like because they wouldn't be featured anymore and they'd be like, why are you not putting out new music? Some people recommended that I go to the police at the time, but I was going to Keith DeGaways place on my own accord. It's not like he forced me and I didn't feel like I was heard in any way, so I couldn't see myself as a victim. I think a lot of other former trainees also felt the same way. But essay is still essay and allegations against someone Johnny's size should have been explosive, right? There were a ton of allegations coming out, left, right, and center, one after the other, most of them including very moving, very detailed specific statements from victims, so why was this not

international news? Why is Johnny Kitegawa not talked about the same way that we now talk about Harvey Weinstein, our Kelly? All these people, why is he so beloved by so many? And from just these victim statements alone, we can conclude that there's probably more victims that have not come forward. So why haven't they? Even anonymously.

There are a lot of things that go into this. For one, these are male victims of sexual trauma. These boys so far all became victims in the 80s or 90s. It's really difficult for male victims to come out today but imagine how much harder it was 30, 40 years ago. The Japanese public and really around the world do not think that men can be victims of sexual crime. It is something that happens to women, and even then nobody cares. Japan didn't even legally qualify men as victims. Japan's law up until 2017, 17, did not recognize that men could be victims of sexual violence. The age of consent also in Japan, to this day, to this day is 13.

Do you know what that means? That means if a person convinces a 13-year-old to have sex with them, no matter the age or power dynamic, that person cannot be held legally responsible because the 13-year-old was not tied down. Basically, sexual assault and exploitation of men isn't just taboo, it is invisible. The boys who came out only got judged.

People would say, what do you mean you got rid of it? You're a man. That's like saying, what do you mean you're while it got stolen? You're 5'7. How does that even correlate? It doesn't even correlate. The victims who did come out on the record, meaning with their face and their names attached to the story, they had trouble existing in society afterwards.

Not only did they have to deal with their trauma, but it was hard finding jobs who would hire them because a lot of East Asian cultures don't like trouble makers. Don't like outspoken people. Because people who accuse other people of sexual assault, quote, rock the boat. And East Asia is known for not liking people who rock the boat and make ways. Japan also has huge politeness culture, and being impolite isn't just annoying a rude, it's socially unacceptable, and it's a big belief that, to inconvenience others should be avoided at all cost.

Accusing someone of sexual assault is inconveniencing people. It makes people uncomfortable, hearing about the story, which is also rude, and most people shy away from discussing topics like this. So this type of environment discourages victims from calling out their abusers, especially if they're people of power. Just the act of throwing at allegations, burdens, the workers, and if the police were to investigate or if the company were to go under because of that, it would burden the employees and the idols, and it's just you are a bad person. Considering all of

this, I really do admire the people who have come out. There are so many obstacles, but they were brave enough to stand up. They put themselves through all of this in hopes to save future trainees. But still, I mean, I would imagine that there would be some mainstream media outlets because, you know, I get it. Media is controlled by people with money and power, but sometimes things get too big and you can't not cover it. Nope. The only newspaper was a local newspaper called the Shukun Banshan that was covering it, and they were the only ones that had no fear going up against J&A. A few sources online refer to Banshan as a tabloid, but others say that they're a highly

regarded source for investigative journalism, and I am inclined to believe the latter because Buncheon actually went up against the Japanese government at one point and that was a whole scandal for them, but they start picking up stories from Kitakawa's victims. They publish a few allegations, nine, to be exact, because this is important, because all nine allegations are gonna be taken to court. One, if the boys refuse the advances, Mr. Kitagawa would place them in a bad position on stage out of the limelight, or they would not appear on television altogether. Two, Mr. Kitagawa let the miners drink alcohol and smoke on a daily basis in the dorms.

Three, when his underage pop group, junior four, were taken under custody for shoplifting, JNA conspired with affiliated TV networks to put a lid on the story and keep it from being reported. This also happened with other similar incidents. 4. JNA and the particular office managers, single-dat members of the four-leafs pop group for abuse and mistreatment. 5. Adult talent who had previously worked for JNA were treated coldly for long periods of time. 6. The underage boys were given such busy schedules they weren't able to attend school.

Seven, the talent employed by JNA were routinely not paid money owed to them. Eight, JNA affiliated fan clubs were managing such a way that they ignored the fans. And nine, the mass media is scared of JNA only prints flattering things about them. They published 14 articles about JNA and the journalists were able to find 12 boys who gave victim statements one of them was only 12 years old. This time the case blew up. Bunch on basically alleged the top entertainment conglomerate of being rotten and being led by a pedophile. Of course there's going to be a reaction. Keith Gawa read the article, so did everyone else at JNA. This wasn't some ex-idol that came out and this was an article that a reputable news outlet had published.

This could bring down their entire company. So Kittakao I sued them. J&A sued Bunshun for libel, which basically means they sued Bunshun on the grounds that their article was full of lies, made them lose out on profit and caused damage to the company off of falsehoods. Bunshun fired back that their article was not full of lies, and that they were going to stand by the journalists that wrote the articles. They went to court. Two of the 12 victims who talked to the journalists were willing to appear in court, and you

have to remember these two victims were not spinot. So technically they didn't have to testify because this was not a criminal investigation. They would gain nothing from it either way. They weren't being asked by prosecutors to do this. They just wanted to stand by what they said. But when the defense asked one of the boys what feeling they had towards Johnny as they sat there in the witness box, the victim said, I wish he lived a long good life.

Most people saw this as how manipulated and brainwashed these boys were. But Kitsugawa was like, see? I'm not assaulting these boys, they like me. He denied everything in court. He said that the boys were lying and that this was affecting his personal image. He said that he couldn't sexually assault anyone because 20 years ago, he had an operation on his private parts for a disease.

And after that surgery, he lost all sexual function. He submitted a medical certificate to prove this, but the certificate said nothing other than the fact that he had surgery. Now, you can have the surgery and not have your sexual function impacted. Like, it's not a plus B equals C, think. It's like, oh, I got laseic surgery,

so I can't have R worded that person. It's like, I mean, doesn't really make sense. Basically, the courts were like, you can't prove that your private parts don't work, so we don't really care if you had surgery or not. Johnny went on stage and he would just talk in circles, just really not answering anything. So I'll give you an example. When Keith Agoa was being cross-examined, the prosecutors asked, or a bunch inside asked, simply put, why did boy A lie? Can you give me a short answer, please?

You think that boy A lied because he was lonely? That's what you said, right? In short, I think that both boy A and boy B are in the same place right now. But that is just pure speculation. It's just that I found both boy A and boy B myself, you know, they're now friends, but in such a lonely existence. In short, even if we say that we're a family,

there are people who will think that. Therefore, as I said yesterday, there is nothing more loansome than not having blood ties. In that sense, maybe it was me that was only so to make it clear, I don't resent the boys or anything, but to say that the boys lied, like your honor said, it's hard for me to say they made a false statement. Honestly, I never meant to sexually harass anyone, but the boys were so adorable, and the bond that we had was very strong, that I felt it was terrible that we were not blood relatives, I was merely trying to bridge this gap. When suddenly the boys cried harassment, the reason they claim harassment is not because they dislike gay activity, they just wanted to betray me.

I'm sure they feel guilty about it now. But I can't definitely say that their testimony is entirely made up. I am so confused. What is he trying to say? He's basically saying that the boys have no family members who love them. So Johnny Kithakawa was trying to be like a dad figure to them, but then the boys mistook it as sexual harassment, and now they're crying sexual harassment, but they probably feel guilty about it now because all he did was be nice to them.

Mm, my seeing. But then he's like, also I can't say for sure that I didn't sexually harass them. Basically going the, these boys are troubled and crying abuse because they're lonely. And it also was not a short answer, okay? Does that sound like a short answer? Does that also not sound like an admission of guilt to you guys? The court did not agree.

They sided with Johnny Kitekawa and ordered Bunchen to pay $70,000 in damages adjusted for inflation. Bunchen again refused. They appealed to the Japanese high court and this time the high court ruled in favor of Bunchen. So they won, which adds more weight to the allegations. but this libel case never led to a criminal one. J&A tried to appeal this decision, but they were rejected. So now, now there was some attention and briefly politicians were asked, what are you going to do about this case? The politician stated that Johnny could not be charged as a criminal because the age of consent is 13. Most of these boys were older than 13. Another thing is that boys could not be our worded in Japan until 2017.

And Johnny was not their parent or guardian, so he couldn't even be classified as child abuse. Wow. There was really no law that they could charge him on. So everything just worked out in his favor? Yeah. Do you like see all the loopholes that really work for a predator? I mean, I mean, these aren't even small cracks.

They're giant cracks in the system. It's not even, wow, this really obscure loopholes that nobody would have ever known. What's going on? Who are we really protecting here? So fine, but what about a full-fledged cancellation? Cancel this guy's career, right? I'm not sure that happened either!

The journalist who covered the libel case said in Japan, love affairs or sexual relations between men, it's like people don't want to talk about it, people don't believe it. When he and other reporters tried to cover the libel case, they were pressured into not saying anything. The reporter said, I was treated as a dangerous person who did some sort of shady reporting. When we went to print, I was harassed, TV newspapers, publishers are profiting from J&A, so they

tried to stomp out the story. In the BBC doc, this same journalist gave an interview and said, I have been in despair for 23 years. Reporters without borders ranked Japan number 68 out of 180 countries for press freedom, which classifies it as having a problematic situation. Wait, 168, 68? Out of... 188 being North Korea. And before anyone gets on their high horse, US is number 45.

Norway and Ireland take the spot of number one and number two, meaning they have the most freedom of press. Because like, you know, every country, we're like, we're Democrats, it's a democratic system. We've got freedom of, no, we don't. The Japanese government and businesses routinely apply pressure on the management of mainstream media. So it's self-sensorship. It might not be government controlled censorship, like

you would imagine, in more communist areas, but it's self-sensorship, but it's practically the same thing. It's pretty bad. It's basically don't bite the hand that feeds you. And they knew that Johnny likes to play games. Key to God, well, wouldn't even let his boys appear on just anybody's shows. He had rules. So if you were this huge TV network that needed their idols to come onto your TV station so that you can make money and views off of your ads, you can't just ask for the biggest star. Johnny would make deals with you. I will give you the biggest star if you feature our new group three times in prime slots.

That's the only way. Take it or leave it. You are also not allowed to promote any idols from rival agencies or publish anything negative about us. Or else this, this stops. If they did, Kitagawa would refuse to allow any J&I idol on their programs and they would lose both audience reach and advertising dollars. So yeah, a lot of the times these big TV shows would run these variety shows or like random network shows And they don't need an idol, but you would just see a rookie J&A idol

Just there basically just to get air time but like genuinely not Giving input like why are you there? It's that if Johnny wanted an idol on that show and idol would be on that show So what does this all mean? This means J&A felt no effects from the libel case or the accusations literally felt none of the heat. In fact, J&A only became more lucrative. Their bottom line was only getting greener. They brought home $36 million a year in profits. So this is not like, this is after operating costs. This is take home. Johnny held the world record for the most number one artist, number one singles, and the most concerts

produced by a single individual at the time. And in July of 2019, Johnny Keith Gawa had a stroke and was taken to the hospital. Trainies visited him, shared food, talked about their memories with him and even sang for him. Johnny ultimately passed July 9th of 2019. Japan held a two-day memorial concert in his honor.

Over 88,000 people were in attendance. Hashtag thank you, Mr. Johnny was trending on Twitter immediately after his death. Over 150 JNA idols performed at the memorial concert. The Prime Minister of Japan sent a condolence letter. An idol from J&A said, Johnny Sun taught me the wonderful things about entertainment. I still can't sort out my feelings, and Johnny Sun would surely scold me if he saw me crying on TV.

Fans who attended the memorial said, Mr. Kitagawa had strained so many idols over the years and left behind such achievements in the Japanese entertainment industry. I wish to offer my sincere prayers for him. My life has become this happy because of Johnny's idols. I have come here today to thank him. I think Johnny's son made his entertainment with love, so I want this practice to be passed on to the next generation.

An idol from J&A even wrote a song as a tribute for Johnny's death, and I'll play a clip. The title is literally called Johnny, and some of the lyrics say things like, didn't know you would change my world, as a lover that would take your time. Am I good enough to take your heart and give my love? Will you go? Will you stay? Yes, I'm forever your lover, never leave you alone. Again, we can't be sure that this idol wasn't just using a song he already had, and titling it Johnny and paying tribute because of his death, but a lot of people outside the situation saw it as a very heartbreaking

love story for a potential victim. I don't know if he is, I'm just reporting what I read online. That's how a lot of people felt. Speaking of, even after Johnny's death, a lot of idols that stated they were abused by Johnny's still expressed condolences and grief for his passing. They showed gratitude for what he had done with their lives. I mean, this has got to be the most complicated feeling that someone can feel. I think again, like in the Japanese culture, at the end of the day,

someone has passed. So one big thing that exists in... I don't want to just say Japanese culture because I can see a lot of it in Korean culture as well, being a Korean American. But there is a really big thing of like, let's just not speak ill of the dead. You know, he already died, why bring it up? But it's kind of confusing, because the victims are not dead. Like, you can't just bury everything, all the bad things someone has done just because they passed and then just try to remember them in a good light.

After Kita Gawa's death, the control control of JNA was passed down to his niece. So her mother Mary is Kitagawa's sister and co-founder of JNA. She was in her late 80s, so she couldn't take over, so her daughter did. Her name is Julie Fujishima. She has been working for JNA for 15 years. And in response to the resurgence of the allegations with the BBC doc, she said, since the death of our former representative in 2019, we are working to establish highly transparent

organizational structures, adapting to the times in compliance with laws, regulations, and strengthen governance within partial experts. Every major news outlet covered Ketagawa's death, but almost none of them talked about his allegations. Journalists who were covering the memorial concert said, I was one of the people who assumed that when Kitagawa died,

the dam would finally break. I assumed that there would be a flood of revelations now that he no longer had his hold over the media. When I asked about the lack of conversation, I was told the Japanese don't like to speak ill of the dead. I find that a very unconvincing response. This wasn't somebody's grandfather. This was a very powerful person

and somebody who is also a public figure. I think the media hid behind that excuse that cultural taboo because it was uncomfortable in many ways. They refused to say what everybody knew. Another thing. I see a lot of commentators online and a lot of them are stands of idols and look. There's not a group that I want to mess with, but I just want to say I don't think anyone

wants anything to harm J&A's idols. No one wants to boycott J&A. No one wants to take down J&A. No one wants to take down the company and then the idols are left with nothing. Nobody wants that. I think more now, especially the fact that Johnny Kitsugawa has since passed, I think people just wanna understand

the full extent of what happened so that the victims maybe can get closure, can get some sort of even payout because I don't think money solves anything but they were already, like, think about it. You don't think it could solve a little bit of something at least, even symbolically, and to also learn how to prevent this from happening

to the next generation. Like, I think that's just what people want. I don't think people want JNA to go down. I don't even think they want a JNA to go down when Johnny was around. I mean, maybe he would step down and someone else would run it, even if it was his niece.

No one wanted. No one's sitting here, like, take down the idols, no one's doing that. It's literally protect idols and future idols, but it's been a bit of a mess, even the BBC documentary is super controversial. I do think that they would have highly benefited from having a Japanese reporter,

someone that knows the cultural significance of everything, someone who could relate to the pressures that the victims's faced, the interviews felt very journalist-led instead of participant-led. And the journalist didn't feel as understanding as I thought that he could have been. The tone that the reporter had throughout

was at least to me felt very, I don't understand why this is happening, so therefore this shouldn't be happening in this world. When it should have been, I don't understand why this is happening. So please help us see whatever I'm not seeing. Help me see a cultural difference. Maybe that's it. Like, help me understand.

Yeah, it's a lot more complex than you make it. Yeah, it's a lot more complex than like, well, we don't hate Johnny. And some of us actually wanted Johnny's attention. And the report is just like, that doesn't make sense. But it's like, no, but it's really complicated. It's like so complicated, there's just so much. The documentary has also gotten a bit of pushback because it feels like trauma tourism.

Like, oh, look what's going on in this country. That's not ours, guys. They're crazy over there. Don't you feel better about being here? Kind of felt like that without bringing in the cultural aspects. It just felt very, you know, it feels like when people are like the dark sides of K-pop but they do it in a way that feels very much like, good thing we don't have that in Hollywood. When it's like, yeah you do, you if I can do. But on the bright side the documentary did spark a lot of international conversation though, I don't think that you can even view this documentary in Japan. You freaking do. But on the bright side of the documentary, you did spark a lot of international conversation, though I don't think that you can even view this documentary

in Japan, and actually a lot of Japanese netizens were not happy with this documentary. They commented, it's a story of the past so why bring it up now. And I saw another comment that said, this is very rude towards the dead. Nakamura, the journalist, who covered the initial libel case, the one that he said was morning for 23 years, responded to that

comment and said, then what are you going to do when your human rights are threatened? Someone else clapped back. Considering the mental pain of Johnny's talent, it's difficult for fans to know how to react correctly. I want to know the truth, but if the fans make too much noise, it'll have a negative impact on the activities of the talents who are just doing their best. Which I get it, but again, no one is going after the idols. But still, to not talk about it is not a great option either. So it's hard to know where to go from here. Some netizens compare Kitagawa to other famous pedophiles like Arkelli and Jeffrey Epstein.

But I mean, I can see the comparison since they all targeted younger people but I don't know for them even after death because Epstein is dead Their reputations are completely ruined rightfully so they've been at least criminally and publicly canceled Keith the Goa is cases a bit different. He's still considered a legend in J-pop and I can't imagine being one of the victims and seeing this guy still be considered the ultimate legend. What are your thoughts? I see some netizens arguing that art and personal life should be separate, but that's kind of confusing because no one actually holds actual idols to that standard. I mean, idols get canceled for literally anything,

like gaining two pounds and they'll get canceled. So why are these big, big men in positions of power held differently? I don't know. What are your thoughts? Please just stay safe out there, and I will see you guys on Sunday for the mini-suit. Bye.