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Yomiuri Shimbun file photo The office of Smile-Up. Inc., formerly Johnny & Associates, in Tokyo
By Kayo Goto / Yomiuri Shimbun Correspondent
13:02 JST, December 20, 2024
LOS ANGELES — Two former members of the Japanese talent agency previously known as Johnny & Associates Inc. have filed a lawsuit in Clark County, Nev., against the agency, which has been renamed Smile-Up Inc., and its former president Julie Keiko Fujishima, alleging sexual assault by Johnny Kitagawa, the late founder of the agency.
They are asking for damages of more than $300 million (about ¥47 billion).
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday. According to the lawsuit, one of the plaintiffs, now 43 years old, accompanied Johnny Kitagawa on a trip to Las Vegas in March 1997 at the age of 15, during which Kitagawa sexually assaulted him at a hotel. The other plaintiff, now 37, alleges that the same thing happened to him in August 2002, when he was 14 years old.
In response to the lawsuit, Smile-Up released a statement on Thursday saying, “We will consult with U.S. lawyers and decide how to proceed.”
