U.N. experts to investigate Johnny Kitagawa’s alleged abuse in Japan

United Nations human rights experts are set to investigate alleged sexual abuse by the late American-Japanese businessman and talent manager Johnny Kitagawa during their first official visit to Japan, an island country in East Asia.

UN experts will conduct interviews with victims of alleged sexual abuse. Interview sessions are scheduled in Tokyo, the capital of Japan, on Tuesday. The sessions will also take place in Osaka, one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in Japan, on Friday.

The Working Group on Business and Human Rights of the United States will start to probe the impact of business operations on human rights and the environment by meeting various ministries, human rights defenders, and representatives of business enterprises.

Pichamon Yeophantong, the Head of Research and Associate Professor at the Centre for Future Defence and National Security, arrived on Saturday for the interview sessions.

Damilola Sunday Olawuyi, the working group chairperson, arrived in the Japanese capital on Monday. The investigation will start from Monday, and it will run until 4 August. 

Sexual abuse allegations against Johnny Kitagawa, an important person for Japanese entertainment, have been heard for many years. However, he was never charged with crime. The Japanese entertainment mogul died in 2019.

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BBC News reported that various young people were sexually abused while working in Johnny Kitagawa’s talent company. Kauan Okamoto, a Japanese singer, also came forward to speak about sexual abuse committed by Johnny Kitagawa. He spoke about sexual abuse by Johnny Kitagawa in April at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo. The singer said that he was the victim of sexual abuse by Johnny Kitagawa. The singer revealed that he was abused up to 20 times from 2012 to 2016. He further said that around 100 boys had been abused by Johnny Kitagawa. 

The scandal at Johnny’s company was widely known before he died.