Yet more evidence that Japan is in a different universe from the rest of us – as if any were needed. A top show business agent is accused by a weekly magazine of sexually molesting young boys who are under his control. HE wins in court because the accusation includes assertions that they he plied them with alcohol and drugs and they can’t prove THAT part of the accusation! He wins about $10,000 for libel and walks on the molestation charge even though there was no doubt that he did molest the boys.

Top showbiz agent molested his boy rising stars

The president of top showbiz agency Johnny's Jimusho, which manages numerous boy pop bands including SMAP [the most popular boy-band in Japan today], molested young boys under contract, an appeal court has ruled in overturning an earlier court decision.

Judges at the Tokyo High Court concluded the Shukan Bunshun magazine's articles that accused the president, Hiromu "Johnny" Kitagawa, of carrying out sex attacks on boys in his agency was "true."

"The victimized youths gave detailed testimonies. However, the agency failed to counter argue the allegations," Presiding Judge Hidekazu Yazaki said.

Yazaki, however, recognized that the article defamed Kitagawa by wrongly alleging he made underage boys drink and smoke on a regular basis and awarded 1.2 million yen in damages to the president.

Shukan Bunshun ran a series of articles from October and December 1999, accusing Kitagawa of molesting young boys in his agency.

"The president molested boys who could not resist him because they knew if they did, their career in the showbiz world would be over even before making their debuts," one of the stories recognized by the high court as truthful read.

Kitagawa sued Bungei Shunju for libel and the publisher appealed the Tokyo District Court ruling that ordered it to pay 8.8 million yen in damages to Kitagawa in March last year. (translated from: Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, July 16, 2003)

[Not really central to the theme of the Archive, but I thought enough readers would be interested.}

It is interesting, but how old were the boys? If they were 18 they were old enough to have sex, which doesn't counter the involuntary part.

We need to rremember though that not all countries consider it wrong to have sex with young people under 18. In many places 14 is old enough to marry and act as an adult. The idea that 18 is the age limit is fairly recent, sort of absurd, since most teenagers are having sex at 13 already, and a huge percentage of teenage girls under 15 are already unwed mothers or have had abortions.

Japanese people have a different cultural attitude about sex in general and don't view it as the deep, dark, sinful, dirty thing that Americans do.

Peresonally I disapprove of molesting anyone of any age or even forcing sex on someone of any age or sex. But you have to view this case in the light of the society it occurred in. I mean we don't cane people bloody here for chewing gum on the street, but in Singapore they do. And there was overwhelming American support for caning that Amwerican kid (Fay? was his last name?) several years ago.

It is all relative, Einstein said.

BUT, there is another point involved there which is more important overall than what the agent did. That point is the one that the Japanese recognized and condemned. He was accused falsely of giving them drinks and cigarettes. That may seem minor comapred to molesting, but the real issue is that newspapers lied about what he did. And if newspapers are allowed to print lies at all, especially just to make something more lurid and sensational, then they can lie about anything and get away with it. Knowing the actual truth and being able to trust what a newspaper prints is essential, because where else do the people learn the facts? Japan recognizes that a society's welfare is dependent on everyone getting the actual facts, the truth of any matter. They see it as more important than any single crime.

It goes back to our own Revolution where Nathan Hale said, "Give me liberty or give me death."

YM

Friend,

That is exploitation and I don't care if the "boys" were 25 years old!

That promoter took unfair advantage of those boys who were his clients. If it would have happened in AMERICA it would be prosecutable under sexual harassment statutes.

It ain't right.... In ANY relationship the participants should be equals. Otherwise, somebody usually gets screwed in more ways than one.

A-1

A-1 (imported) wrote: Tue Jul 29, 2003 9:07 pm That promoter took unfair advantage of those boys who were his clients. If it would have happened in AMERICA it would be prosecutable under sexual harassment statutes.

<G> IMHO, this doesn't seem all that different from televising a bunch of overprivileged GenerationXers who go into a jungle, eat worms, have sex, jump off buildings, marry guys they've never seen before, etc. As someone once said, "It's all Show Biz."

terry

I do not agree.

When you enter into a contract all stipulations need to be spelled out. Those boys in Japan didn't sign on for their day in the barrell. What they expected was a recording contract.

That "Survivor" thing on CBS is not the same thing because those people know what they are getting into before they do it.

Let me put it to you this way. Suppose that somebody went into a bar and picked up a partner. After the expectation of safe sex the person and an agreement the person forces the issue and the person cannot get away.

Before hand he says "oh, and by the way I am HIV positive and you cannot leave until we have sex..."

It is the same principle, misreprensation to gain unfair advantage.

Nobody can misrepresent "Survivor" but as you have observed, it still is not right.

A-1

I’ve been trying to track down copies of the original articles, but with no luck so far. A real question is the age of the boys involved. The legal age of consent is 18. Are the boys in question 17, 15, or 12 years old?

What is termed “compensated dating” has a fairly long history in Japan. It started with high school girls soliciting “dates” with middle-aged men. They would (usually) go to dinner and a movie before ending up at a “Love Hotel,” (a hotel that rents rooms by the hour and generally has mirrored ceilings, vibrating beds, and other pleasure toys in each room). There was a lot of head-shaking over this (illegal) activity, but not much was done about it. Girls would even go so far as to post their telephone numbers in phone booths near love hotels. A few high school boys also take part in the activity, though I have found little information on them. (I probably need to check out some of the gay literature in Japan and/or visit the “gay quarter” of one of the cities there for current information. Maybe – but not likely – on my next visit.)

I even have in my collection a magazine ad for a Love Hotel in southern Japan with quotes from satisfied customers, including a high school girl/businessman pair and high school boy and one of his female high school teachers!

More recently (about the last 6 or 7 years), JUNIOR high school girls have become active in “compensated dating.” Again, there is much more head-shaking than real effort to stop the practice. I have read a few newspaper articles about ELEMENTARY school girls involved as well. So far I have seen nothing about junior high or elementary school boys prostituting themselves, but, given some of the Tokyo newspaper articles I’ve been reading recently, I expect that they are out there.

In this human expereince we have realityh, reality based on cultural mores and cultural mores. It is as useless to tr to applyh our western morality cross culturally as it is to try to to it retroactively. The reality is that if people are able to reproduce biologically, old enough to make babies, then they are also old enough to have sex. Japan is dealing with the strong influence of American culture imposed on their ancient social setup which was so different from the West that it is useless to get bent out of shape about how they do things.

It is hard for me to understand how a kid can be old enough to have a rock career and not be old enough to handle sexual advances from someone over 18. he is living alreadyh as an adult in a highly sexed enterntainment area. Aere we to pretend that they are threatened by sex?

We continually deal unconsciously with the judeo-christian influence on our thinking and accept it as right wwhether or not we believe in these religions (I don't -- but I still have the conditioning). Both these religions are based on masochism and the denial of everything that is natural to human biology.

I wills top here for the moment, but screaming because there is more than one kind of culture on this planet and they don't all subscribe to European-nbased morality is like going in and wiping out all but red roses.

Morality is fluid and is based on changing thoughts and attitudes. In the past tren years our own American morality has changed from not allowing swear words on TV that everyone uses to anything goes.

YM

Look, this has nothing to do with sexual morality...

It is much simpler than that....

It is misrepresenting or LYING about a business transaction. It is mis-representing yourself in a business deal and no culture would condone this type of action. It is no different than the thugs who go into the mountains of Thailand and acquire 12-year-old children for sexual slavery.

It is racketeering and forced prostitution.

It is not about the sex...it is NEVER about the sex, it is the principle of the thing.

It is Wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!

Technically, it is breach of contract.

Bastards who do this should be tied down and fucked and see how they like it. They should be raped until they promise to stop.

A-1

A-1, you have GOT to stop pussy-footing around and tell us what you REALLY think.

terry

Falcon (imported) wrote: Thu Jul 31, 2003 6:00 pm A-1, you have GOT to stop pussy-footing around and tell us what you REALLY think.

terry

How about a nice Puerto-Rican necktie...you know, where you slit the throat to the neck bone and then grab the tongue and pull it through the hole and stretch down toward the chest as far as you can get it to go?

Messy, but effective. Sure beats a hand grenade suppository...

A-1