Julie Keiko Fujishima said Thursday she has stepped down as president of Johnny & Associates Inc, one of Japan's most prominent talent agencies, amid allegations its late founder had sexually abused teenagers aspiring to become pop singers for decades.
Fujishima acknowledged the sexual misconduct of the founder Johnny Kitagawa, her uncle, during a press conference, the first by the agency since the allegations came under renewed scrutiny earlier this year.
She said that with her resignation as president as of Tuesday, Noriyuki Higashiyama, 56, a veteran TV personality long represented by the agency, widely known as Johnny's, has taken over as president. He was a member of the idol group Shonentai.
The decision comes just over a week after an external probe set up by the agency concluded that the firm had long concealed Kitagawa's sexual abuse from the early 1970s through to the mid-2010s.
The probe's report into operations at the company had recommended that Fujishima stand down over concerns their family ties would compromise organizational attempts to reform in the scandal's wake.
Kitagawa was one of the Japanese entertainment industry's most powerful figures, propelling numerous groups such as SMAP and Arashi to stardom before his death in 2019.
But he was not held accountable for his actions for decades, raising suspicions of organized complicity and cover-ups within the agency and the broader Japanese entertainment industry.
Fujishima's late mother Mary Yasuko Fujishima, Kitagawa's older sister, was cited in the report as a major factor in the long-term concealment of sexual abuse at the firm.
Allegations against Kitagawa underwent renewed scrutiny in Japan after the BBC aired a documentary in March featuring interviews with multiple people claiming to have been abused by him.
Several former members of the agency, such as Kauan Okamoto, have since come forward with allegations of sexual abuse by Kitagawa as teens.
The report from the independent panel came after a U.N. human rights delegation in early August issued its own conclusions regarding the company following interviews in Japan with multiple alleged victims.
Among its findings, it said it heard "deeply alarming allegations" that several hundreds of the agency's talents were sexually exploited and abused.
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