In the past two days, a big news has caused a sensation in Japan and even the world: Janis finally recognized!
Kitagawa , the founder of Japan's largest star-making factory, abused his underage boys for nearly 40 years, with the youngest victim nearly 13 years old.
It has previously been reported that the most conservative estimates put the number of victims in the hundreds.
There are also second-generation and well-known actors in the Japanese entertainment industry who accused him of sexual assault, as early as 70 years ago, he assaulted him more than 100 times, and later even the victim's friends could not escape the clutches, and was abused by Kitagawa in turn in the victim's home.
The dark truth that has been covered up by the whole country for 70 years is finally being publicly recognized, and Kitagawa who is revered by the Japanese like a god has finally been stripped of his sanctimonious coat...
For many people who follow Japanese entertainment, Janis Office (nicknamed J Family) is a name that can never be bypassed.
Because this company has a pivotal position in the Japanese entertainment industry, since the founder Jeni Kitagawa founded the company in 1962, in the decades since, Janis has become popular with countless superstars, and the people who came out of Janis have almost monopolized the Japanese music industry boy idol group industry for half a century.
SMAP, Arashi, KAT-TUN, Hey Say Jump, SixTONES, Splash Man... These idol boy bands that span different generations and are popular all over Asia are proof of Janis' star-making strength.
In Japan, Janis has long become a star-making myth.
And its founder, Kitagawa is the one who created the myth.
He is regarded as the godfather of Japanese pop culture (he died in 2019), he is admired, worshiped, and put on the altar, and countless parents are vying to send their young sons to him, hoping that he will help him become famous.
Even if he knows that he is a perverted pedophile, he will prey on underage boys in the company.
Yes, in Japan, Kitagawa 'proclivities" have long been an open secret, and as early as the 80s of the last century, Kitagawa was repeatedly exposed to scandals of child sexual abuse.
But it didn't stop fanatical parents from scrambling to send their sons into the clutches.
At that time, the weekly magazine Bunchun was almost the only media in Japan to report on Kitagawa sexually abusing underage artists.
In the end, the Tokyo High Court found that "Kitagawa assaulted underage teenagers, and if they refused, they would not be able to debut, and their stage positions would deteriorate" as described in Fumiharu's report, and these were "evidenced to prove true."
Even if the court has ruled so, no one cares, no one condemns, and there is little media coverage.
It wasn't until March this year, when the BBC released a new documentary revealing the truth about Kitagawa sexually assaulting underage male artists in companies, that Japan was once again forced to recall the dirt behind the "star-making god".
The UN Human Rights Council held a press conference in Japan on the issue, accusing Japanese media of involvement in covering up the scandal and urging the Japanese government to make practical reparations for the victims.
The intervention of the United Nations can also be seen to some extent the huge repercussions caused by the launch of the documentary, Janis can no longer pretend to be an ostrich and bury his head in the sand, and the silence of the Japanese can no longer work, because it has become a sensational international event.
In May, the current president of Janis, Julie Fujishima Keiko (she is the daughter of Kitagawa sister Mary), came forward to apologize, of course, an apology alone is not enough, and an investigation team was set up to clarify the case from the standpoint of a third party.
The leader of this group is former prosecutor general Lin Zhenqin, and other members include psychiatrists, clinical psychologists and other professionals, who collect testimony and evidence from victims and those involved in the case to clarify the facts.
The investigation began at the end of May and took nearly three months, collecting the accounts of 23 victims and 18 company employees, and compiled a 71-page investigation report. The result: sexual assault is real.
Although everyone knows that it is true, the investigation team made the results public, and it still gives a sense of dust to settle.
The investigation determined that Kitagawa sexually assaulted some of the victims in the 1950s, and from the first half of the 1970s to the mid-2010s, most Janis Jr. (a young trainee who was selected to practice at the office in elementary or junior high school and waited for his debut) was repeatedly sexually assaulted by Janis from the first half of the 1970s to the mid-2010s.
Why has sexual assault occurred on such a scale over half a century?
The report identifies four reasons.
1. Kitagawa 's "abnormal X-fetish"
From the age of 20 to the mid-80s, he hunted adolescents extensively and extensively, using his position to turn these children with star dreams into tools for his own cathartic desires.
This morbid desire of his is the root cause of the crime.
2. His sister is his accomplice
Kitagawa 's sister Marie was 4 years older than him, and Kitagawa 's mother died when she was 2 years old, and it was Mary who took care of the younger brother on her behalf.
Although the two are siblings, they are actually more like mother and son, and many relevant people surveyed have said so.
So the question is, Mary regards Kitagawa like her own son, can she not see the abnormality of Kitagawa ? She knew that her brother was a perverted pedophile, but instead of stopping his brother from doing evil, she helped him do evil and helped him completely hide all this from the outside world.
In the middle is Mary
This is like a family member becoming a zombie, she also has to protect the zombie, and even constantly lure innocent people into the trap, just to use fresh flesh and blood to feed the so-called "family" who has lost their humanity.
It seems to be deeply affectionate, but she doesn't think that those who have been fed zombies, they are really innocent.
The Investigation Team's report concluded: "Mary consistently ignored [Kitagawa crimes] and concealed them without any response. ”
3. Inaction by Janis Associates
In addition to Mary, the rest of Janis' office is also blindly partial to Kitagawa and has become an accomplice of sexual assault.
Even if the victim confides in the staff, the answer is only "If you want to debut, you can only endure" and "If you endure, you can make your dreams come true".
So much so that later, Kitagawa sexually assaulted teenagers became a "well-known fact in the entertainment industry."
4. The power structure relationship that leads to the normalization of victimization
Janis is a family business with a very closed interior.
A high-ranking person like Kitagawa has absolute power in the company, and the power to kill all artists is in his hands.
He can arbitrarily decide everything about the artist, and mature artists do not yet have the ability to confront this huge force, let alone those underage trainees who have just entered the company and have not yet debuted.
Neither their status, age nor mentality can compete with a powerful sex offender like Kitagawa .
Sexual assault becomes regular when it occurs frequently and is covered up in a structure of power imbalance.
Because there are no consequences, no punishment, crime becomes a common thing.
People begin to turn a blind eye to this, and when sexual assault is committed by a powerful person, people want to rationalize and even glorify this behavior.
The zombie became a god, and those who believed in him stripped themselves of their humanity.
Report in memory of Kitagawa
5. Silent media
There are more people who believe in zombies, and the spiral of silence is also expanding.
Janis remained silent as a whole, and the company's position as a leader in the entertainment industry allowed this guilty silence to affect the entire Japanese media industry.
The investigation report pointed out: "In the eyes of the media led by TV stations, Janis is Japan's top entertainment company, and if Janis's sexual assault is reported, it may make the company's idol artists refuse to appear in TV programs and magazines." Because of these concerns, the media felt the need to control coverage of sexual assault in Kitagawa Province. ”
The silence of the mass media has undoubtedly deepened the deception of the public, and on the other hand, the media has never controlled the coverage of Kitagawa singing praises, so that more parents and more children yearn for the demon cave of Janis.
After clarifying the facts of the case, the report summarized the essence of the case and concluded that Kitagawa was extremely egregious in nature.
The investigation team proposed that Janis should develop a victim assistance system, a corporate policy that respects human rights, and conduct research on sexual assault and harassment.
But no matter how Janis rectifies it later, the physical and mental torture suffered by the victims for so many years can no longer be changed, and this criminal system and all accomplices of Kitagawa crimes should pay for it.
And the range of victims is probably much more than we think.
Because Kitagawa did not just target a few specific trainees, he targeted many small trainees on a large scale.
He reportedly even assaulted multiple underage trainees in the same training center or hotel room on the same night.
"From the questioning of the victims, it is known that there are at least hundreds of victims, which is confirmed by multiple witnesses."
When the relevant documentary was launched in March this year, the newspaper sister introduced the dark insider in detail, and those who want to know can take a look. (Poke here for review)
In July, a 79-year-old veteran actor and musician Yoshiji Hattori, the second son of a top Japanese star, the second son of renowned composer Ryoichi Hattori, held a press conference in Tokyo to accuse Kitagawa of sexually assaulting him 70 years ago.
He was only 8 years old at the time, and over the next two and a half years, he was abused a hundred times at home by his seemingly friendly neighbor brother Kitagawa at home!
Even his elementary school classmates came to his house to play, but they did not escape Kitagawa clutches.
Hattori Yoshiji's complaint caused a great shock in Japan, pushing the truth of the "Kitagawa sexual assault" case to come to light.
Countless Japanese and international lights have been cast on this once radiant star-making mecca, and the current president of Janis has been forced to have a nervous breakdown because of this incident, and after receiving the recommendation of the investigation team, she agreed to resign as president, and the family business that lasted for 60 years ended here.
But the resignation does not mean that the relevant personnel can no longer bear the corresponding responsibilities, and Janis's internal rectification still has a long way to go.
This trial against Kitagawa finally came with a shocking momentum after nearly a century of delay.
It makes people feel happy and resentful at the same time, just because the initiator has died, but the victims have to go on with a lifetime of trauma, and the apology they want most cannot be heard...
When Kitagawa dies, is the victim really safe?
Hardly.
As long as the Japanese unconditionally maintain their power and as long as there are people willing to maintain a filthy system, the exploitation and encroachment on the weak will not stop.