Former Johnny’s Members Submit Petition with 39,000 Signatures

The Yomiuri Shimbun

13:36 JST, June 6, 2023

Three former members of the all-male talent agency Johnny & Associates Inc. who have revealed that they were sexually abused by the agency’s founder submitted a petition to the Diet on Monday.

They submitted the petition, which was signed by 39,000 people, to the six ruling and opposition parties, including the Liberal Democratic Party.

In the petition, the former members call for revisions to the Child Abuse Prevention Law, specifically insisting on the expansion of the definition of child abuse. They emphasize the need to include cases in which abuse is perpetrated by individuals in positions of influence, in addition to traditional guardians defined under the current law.

Johnny & Associates founder Johnny Kitagawa died in 2019.