Spotlights

[Research News] Unveiling a ‘Conspiracy of Silence’ Surrounding Johnny Kitagawa’s Crimes of Sexual Abuse

Mutual interests among media, government, and industry, not just cultural conformity, sustained silence around a major sexual abuse case

Professor Yukiko Nishikawa examines why longstanding allegations of sexual abuse against Johnny Kitagawa, the founder of Johnny & Associates, went largely unaddressed even as the agency became a dominant force in Japan’s entertainment industry from the 1970s onward. In her new study, she argues that this prolonged silence reflected a “conspiracy of silence” sustained by interconnected media, institutional, and cultural dynamics. Her analysis highlights forms of structural complicity and underscores the need for systemic reforms to prevent similar failures in the future.

Reference
Nishikawa, Y. (2026). The architecture of complicity: Media, power and conspiracy of silence in the Johnny Kitagawa sexual abuse case. Japan Forum, 1-23.
DOI 10.1080/09555803.2026.2639988

For more details, please see the website of Organization for Research Innovation, Doshisha University. 
https://research.doshisha.ac.jp/news/news-detail-95/

This achievement has also been featured in the “EurekAlert!.”
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1122320

Image title: Media and celebrity culture in Japan
Image caption: The relationship and complicity between the government, media organizations, and talent agencies has been identified as a key structural factor in the suppression of abuse allegations in the Japanese entertainment industry.
Image credit: interiot at Wikimedia Commons
Image source:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Street_photo_session_with_underground_idol,_in_Akihabara_pedestrian_zone_(2006-07-09_00.19.38_by_interiot).jpg  
License type: CC BY SA 2.0
Usage restrictions: Credit must be given to the creator. Adaptations must be shared under the same terms.