Johnny’s Artists Absent From NHK’s 74th Kohaku Year-end Music Festival; First Time in 44 Years for Scandal-Plagued Entertainment Agency

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:14 JST, November 13, 2023

No artist belonging to Smile-Up. Inc. (formerly Johnny & Associates, Inc.) is expected to appear on NHK’s 74th “Kohaku Utagassen” (“Red & White Year-end Song Festival”) on Dec. 31, according to the list of participating singers and groups released by NHK on Monday.

Johnny & Associates singers and groups have performed on the popular annual music program every year since 1980. Now, for the first time in 44 years, the entertainment agency that has been embroiled in its former president’s, the late Johnny Kitagawa’s, juvenile sex abuse scandal will not be featured.

In September, NHK President Nobuo Inaba said during a regular press conference that the public broadcaster will not offer appearances on NHK programs to the agency’s artists until the agency is confirmed to have compensated the victims and drawn up measures for preventing sexual abuse.