Investigation finds late founder of Japanese talent agency for boy bands sexually assaulted teens

By YURI KAGEYAMA
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A team investigating sexual assault allegations against the late founder of a talent agency for boy bands says it has found the charges credible and is calling for financal compensation for the victims. The three-month probe, which included the accounts of 23 victims, concluded that agency chief Johnny Kitagawa had sexually assaulted teen boys as far back as the 1950s, with at least several hundred people targeted. About a dozen men have come forward in recent months, alleging sexual abuse by the founder of Johnny & Associates. Kitagawa, who died in 2019, was never charged. The special investigative team said the company’s current chief executive, Julie Keiko Fujishima, should resign.