Another former J-pop star has said he was the victim of repeat sexual abuse by Johnny Kitagawa, a revered Japanese music producer who died in 2019.
Kauan Okamoto, 26, said he was abused up to 20 times by Kitagawa, beginning when he was 15 and in a boy band from 2012 to 2016.
He told foreign press on Wednesday he believed as many as 100 boys had been abused by Kitagawa in his penthouse.
A BBC documentary in March detailed allegations from several other victims.
Multiple accusers told the BBC’s Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop documentary they feared their careers would be harmed if they refused Kitagawa.
Kitagawa had always denied the allegations. He never faced criminal charges.
In Japan, he was viewed as one of the music industry’s most powerful figures. When he died in 2019 at age 87, his legacy of having created several J-pop stars was widely celebrated in the country.
However allegations that he had groomed and sexually abused teenage artists had been around since 1999, when a local magazine Shukan Bunshun published accounts from six former idols.
Most Japanese media however did not cover the allegations – prompting years of accusations of an industry cover-up.
Mr Okamoto told a foreign media press conference on Wednesday he had been compelled to speak out after the BBC documentary was released last month. He first detailed his allegations to Shukan Bunshun on 5 April, and he was invited to speak at the Foreign Correspondents Club in Tokyo on Wednesday.
“Japanese media are extremely reluctant to cover this issue, but [I have heard] foreign media, like the BBC, might report on it,” said Okamoto, according to reports.
The Japanese-Brazilian singer and songwriter said the abuse occurred about 15- 20 times at Kitagawa’s Tokyo apartment.
He had been picked to join the Johnny’s Jr group in 2012 – which was a talent pool of male idols in training at Kitagawa’s agency Johnny & Associates.
Mr Okamoto said he knew of at least 100 boys who had stayed over at Kitagawa’s home and he believed all of them had been abused.
On Wednesday Johnny & Associates issued a statement after Mr Okamato’s press conference saying the company was working to “strengthen our governance system”.
It did not make address Mr Okamato’s allegations or make any other reference to its founder.
The agency remains Japan’s top male talent manager and production company. It has produced some of the country’s biggest boy bands, such as SMAP and Arashi.
Mr Okamoto said he hadn’t considered taking legal action against Johnny & Associates.
Instead he expressed hope that telling his story would inspire more victims to speak out.
“I hope everyone will come forward because it is an outrageous number of victims,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
“I believe that what he did to me, performing sexual acts when I was 15, and what he did to other boys, was wrong.”
