Asian Junkie Asian pop. Without discretion.
A bit over a week ago, Johnny & Associates issued a formal apology for the numerous sexual abuse allegations against founder Johnny Kitagawa, and that only happened mainly due to renewed criticism following a BBC documentary and Kauan Okamoto coming forward as a victim.
Now a member of the 90s Johnny’s group Ninja has come forward to Shukan Bunshun, with Shiga Yasunobu stating he was sexually abused by Johnny about 30-40 times. As Shiga explained how things started, it seemed to establish a pattern given the stories of Kauan and the others.
Shiga told Bunshun that when he joined Johnny & Associates in the spring of 1984 when he entered high school when he was assaulted.
Shiga said, “It was about the second lesson after entering the school. Mr. Johnny asked, ‘would you like to come to the training camp?’”.
Johnny drove a Mercedes-Benz and took me to an apartment called a “training camp” in Harajuku at the time. Shiga, who did not know about Johnny’s sexual assault, followed him to the training camp where his seniors lived out of curiosity. The first night at the training camp. It was right after that that the fun day turned dark.
Shiga said, “Johnny-san came next to me. I was wondering if he was going to sleep with me or something, but he started touching me. Mr. Johhny’s face was hidden under the blanket. He didn’t say a word, he remained silent”.
He adds that he was 15 at the time this started.
Shiga who was 15-years-old at the time, continued to pretend to sleep. Without ejaculating, Johnny left the room. Johnny’s behavior continued until he was about 18.
Shiga said, “I think I was sexually abused about 30 to 40 times”.
Shiga also mentions that he’s coming forward because Julie Fujishima claimed she didn’t know about the abuse, and also that he wants to lend help to Kauan’s allegations as well.
Shiga’s confession was triggered by Johnny’s office president Fujishima Julie Keiko’s remarks when she explained Johnny’s sexual assault in a video and document. “When Julie said, “I didn’t know”, My response was “I thought you were lying. You knew, didn’t you?”.
By testifying, I can help (Okamoto) Cowan and the signature campaign even a little. I want to be a source of strength for the fans who are doing this, and I wanted to raise interest in the issue by talking about the people who made their CD debuts on Kouhaku.
Despite being a member of a successful group at the time that participated at Kohaku and swept rookie awards, Shiga says he developed an eating disorder and was ‘destroyed’ in terms of mental health.
The popularity of ninja was skyrocketing, but Shiga said, “At the time of my debut, I had an eating disorder, or rather, I couldn’t eat anything, and I weighed only 42 kilograms. I was completely destroyed mentally.”
He also explained that he lived in fear of Kitagawa coming to get him.
——
Not really much to say about Johnny himself or Johnny & Associates at this point, as it should be self-evident by now that they’re horrible.
Rather I’m glad Shiga was brave enough to come forward and tell his story publicly, as it helps not only Kauan but the others who have talked about it beforehand and been ignored. As Bunshun mentions briefly in their article, there are still people who claim all of this is coming out now because the victims want attention or stuff like that, but the fact that a 90s idol that’s out of the industry comes forward with the same experience from decades ago at least makes it harder for them to convince regular people of their conspiracies. Needless to say, hopefully he doesn’t suffer any backlash as a result of this, and I think he certainly achieved what he set out to do by coming forward.
