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© KYODONHK to suspend new contracts with talent of scandal-hit Johnny's
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MarkX
I guess this year's Kohaku will be just AKB 48, followed by SKE 48, followed by Nogizaka 46 and so on. Johnny's has dominated the show for years. This might sound the death knell for the institution. Or maybe NHK could highlight some real musical artists and make for a great show! Let's hope they go that way.
MichaelBukakis
Thank heavens
BertieWooster
Is that ghastly Kohaku show still going?
Moonraker
After years of sweeping it all under the carpet, along with the rest of the docile media, this is too little, too late. NHK should have had a moral duty, as it is not a profit-driven enterprise, to speak up and keep speaking up years ago. They are totally reprehensible.
opheliajadefeldt
Kitagawa was one of the most revered figures in Japan's entertainment industry.............And who put him on, and kept him on that pedestal. Those in power.
shogun36
Good, less fast forwarding or changing the channels when watching the show.
Aly Rustom
They are no different than Kitagawa. They're just trying to cover their butts. (pun intended)
virusrex
Insulting, letting the company survive, even when it is obvious other people were involved in letting the sexual abuse happen for decades is bad enough; but pretending that a name change would make things better is even worse, it mocks the victims suffering.
BeerDeliveryGuy
As long as Johnny’s exists and Keiko Fujishima holds a majority share, there will be no fundamental changes.
Bow some heads, cry, pay some compensation, but still the same rotten-to-the-core corporation.
BeerDeliveryGuy
Johnny’s is also famous for hiding sensitive information of its talents, such as substance abuse, sexual misconduct, sexual orientation, etc, and using it to exert control over them.
Almost every time a Johnny’s boy is arrested or involved in a scandal, it is later found out that they were planning on going freelance or had some disagreement with the agency.
The compliant ones get away with rape (Inagaki, SMAP), public nudity, resisting arrest (Kusanagi, SMAP) to name a few. And the ones who try to go independent get framed and outed like Yamaguchi, TOKIO, (indecent conduct and providing alcohol with a minor) and Narumiya (suspected substance abuse, being gay).
Samit Basu
@MarkX
More like K-pop idols.
https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/76fdaacf8c45d4117ccbe74dfbae1f7484552032
Keepyer Internetpoints
Collective punishment is a cretinish idea.
Let the guilty be punished. Let the innocent keep their jobs.
I think some of you also forgot that Johnny Kitagawa is dead. He is beyond human punishment now.
3RENSHO
Have to agree with BeerDeliveryGuy -- it was such a shame that TOKIO lost their bass player, and there was something suspicious about the way he was ousted from the group...
falseflagsteve
About bleeding time too. I must say.
Right scandal isn't it and outrageous.
gokai_wo_maneku
Now it is the boys that will be hurt again, by not being able to perform and make a living. I don't like the boys being harmed like this. Maybe I'll drop NHK.
David Brent
All of this is thanks to the BBC.
The only reason any action has made it this far is because Japan was made to look less than perfect on the global stage.
In Japan, change comes from without.
virusrex
This is not collective punishment, simply making the company responsible for facilitating the crimes,
The "talents" are free to do their jobs with any other agency, or with a new one without any of the people in power that should have done much better than allowing systematic rape.
Of course if the supposed talented people are unable to find jobs without the huge support of the corrupted agency they belong right now then that is still a positive development, people with actual worth will be the ones getting those jobs.
Pretending he did everything by himself as if he were some kind of superhuman able to hide obvious rapes without the help of many other people in his agency (and in other positions of power in show business) is not realistic nor believable.
gogogo
To little too late, NHK knew about all of this yet chose to ignore it for ratings and money. Shame NHK!
リッチ
Existing contracts?
YankeeX
Hopefully this will finally making room for talents with actually talent.
kaimycahl
This is the results being done all in the Johnny's name of Love, Lust and now bust!!
mb96768
People act as if this is something new, feigned moral outrage by the public and the media after having benefited. The casting couch is old and worn...
The real victims are the performers, not because of the sexual abuse, but because of a gatekeeper system that prevents true and new talent from making it into the spotlight.
Any of these boys could have walked away but instead carefully weighed the potential benefits against their own core values.
And what is it with these androgynous boy bands anyway?
virusrex
The point is invalidated since you are talking about minors.