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Smile-Up
was a Japanese talent agency formed by Johnny Kitagawa in 1962, which managed groups of male idols known as The company had a significant impact on pop culture with male idols and boy bands in Japan since the 1980s. Until 2019, the company was known for its strict policies regarding music distribution abroad and its strict control over the right of publicity to using the likeness of idols under its management. In the wake of continuing sexual abuse allegations directed against Kitagawa, who died in 2019, his niece, Julie Keiko Fujishima, stepped down as president in September 2023. On October 2, 2023, Johnny & Associates announced that they would be splitting into two entities: Smile-Up, a firm focused on reparations for Kitagawa's sexual abuse cases, and Starto Entertainment, a talent agency managing the acts that had been managed under Johnny & Associates. History 1962–1989 In 1962, Kitagawa launched his first group, Johnnys. In its early days, Kitagawa's agency rente ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Kitagawa Sexual Abuse Scandal
In 2023, it was revealed that Johnny Kitagawa (1931–2019), the founder of the Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates, had committed repeated acts of sexual abuse from the early 1970s until the mid-2010s. Considered one of the most powerful figures in the Japanese entertainment industry, Kitagawa held a virtual monopoly on the creation of boy bands in Japan for more than forty years. No criminal charges were ever filed against Kitagawa, as the Mass media in Japan, Japanese media had covered up the abuse without reporting it at all. Between 1988 and 2000, Kitagawa was the subject of numerous allegations that he had taken advantage of his position to engage in improper sexual relationships with adolescent boys under contract to Johnny & Associates. Kitagawa denied these claims, and in 2002 was awarded an judgment against ''Shukan Bunshun'', the magazine that had published some of the allegations. An appeal by the magazine followed, resulting in a partial reversal of the judgme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johnny Kitagawa
John Hiromu Kitagawa (Japanese name ; October 23, 1931 – July 9, 2019), known professionally as , was a Japanese business magnate, promoter, record producer. He was best known as the founder of Johnny & Associates, a talent agency for numerous popular boy bands in Japan. In 2023, after his death, a BBC documentary, ''Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop'', reignited discussion of allegations that he had taken advantage of his position to engage in improper sexual relationships with boys under contract to his talent agency. This led to an independent probe which concluded that Kitagawa had "repeated and widely" abused boys in his organizations since the 1970s. Kitagawa assembled, produced and managed more than a dozen popular bands, including Tanokin Trio, Hey! Say! JUMP, SMAP, Arashi, Kanjani8, V6, NEWS and KAT-TUN. Kitagawa's influence spread beyond music to the realms of theatre and television. Regarded as one of the most powerful figures in the Japanese entertainment in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Starto Entertainment
is a Japanese entertainment company that provides artist management services established on October 17, 2023. The president is Atsushi Fukuda. Many of the groups and artists formerly affiliated with Johnny & Associates belong to this company. It began full operations in April 2024. Company formation After he died in 2019, Johnny & Associates' founder Johnny Kitagawa's sexual abuse was revealed in 2023, on October 2, Julie Keiko Fujishima, Kitagawa's niece and successor, decided to compensate the victims and close the business. The name “Johnny” was erased from the company name because of Fujishima's desire to "erase all traces of Johnny Kitagawa from this world". Johnny & Associates changed its name to Smile-Up and concentrated on compensating the victims. Together with the change of activities of what was now Smile-Up, the establishment of a new company was being sought to ensure the continued activities of celebrities belonging to Johnnys & Associates, and Atsushi Fukud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Noriyuki Higashiyama
is a Japanese businessman, former singer, actor, and member of the idol group Shonentai. He is married to actress Yoshino Kimura. In September 2023 Higashiyama became the president and CEO of Johnny & Associates (currently Smile-Up), until his retirement at the end of 2023, following the Johnny Kitagawa sexual abuse scandal, sexual abuse scandal involving late company founder Johnny Kitagawa. History Childhood (1966–1979) According to his book ''Kawasaki Kid'', Higashiyama's paternal great-grandfather was Russian. When he was still a baby, his grandfather drunkenly poured boiling water on his leg, which left him with a deformity in his left foot. Because of this burn, he stated that his leg remained bandaged until he was about three years old. Higashiyama was known to train very hard, doing 1,000 sit-ups daily, running and maintaining a body fat percentage of 9%. He worked out intensely because the deformity in his leg caused pain in his hip joint without muscle training. Des ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minato, Tokyo
is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward of Tokyo, Japan. It is also called Minato City in English. Minato was formed in 1947 as a merger of Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka, Azabu and Shiba, Tokyo, Shiba wards following Tokyo City's Local Autonomy Act, transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Minato ward exhibits the contrasting Shitamachi and Yamanote geographical and cultural division. The Shinbashi neighborhood in the ward's northeastern corner is attached to the core of Shitamachi, the original commercial center of Edo-Tokyo. On the other hand, the Azabu and Akasaka areas are typically representative Yamanote districts. , Minato had an official population of 243,094, and a population density of 10,850 persons per km2. The total area is 20.37 km2. Known as one of Tokyo's largest business areas, Minato is home to the headquarters of many large domestic companies, including Honda, Mitsubishi Motors, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, NEC, Nikon, SoftBank Group, Sony and Fuj ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online news coverage. The service has over 5,500 journalists working across its output including in 50 foreign news bureaus where more than 250 foreign correspondents are stationed. Deborah Turness has been the CEO of news and current affairs since September 2022. In 2019, it was reported in an Ofcom report that the BBC spent £136m on news during the period April 2018 to March 2019. BBC News' domestic, global and online news divisions are housed within the largest live newsroom in Europe, in Broadcasting House in central London. Parliamentary coverage is produced and broadcast from studios in London. Through BBC English Regions, th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hikaru Genji (band)
was a Japanese pop music idol group named after the character Hikaru Genji of ''The Tale of Genji''. They were managed by Japanese talent agency Johnny & Associates from 1987 to 1995. History Until the appearance of another pop group represented by Johnny & Associates ( Hey! Say! 7) in 2007, Hikaru Genji held the record for the youngest male group to top the Oricon singles charts. In 1988, Hikaru Genji became the second artist in history to monopolize the top three spots on the Oricon singles chart and the third artist in history to dominate the top two spots on the charts. They also won the Japan Record Award in the 30th Japan Record Awards for their song "Paradise Ginga" that same year, making them the second Johnny's artist to win the award after Masahiko Kondo and the last before Johnny & Associates established a policy that would decline all future nominations of awards from organizations such as the Japan Record Awards and the Japan Academy Awards. In 1994, Mikio Osawa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oricon
, established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a s ... and information on music and the music industry in Japan and Western music. It started as , which was founded by Sōkō Koike in November 1967 and became known for its music charts. Oricon Inc. was originally set up as a subsidiary of Original Confidence and took over the latter's Oricon record charts in April 2002. The charts are compiled from data drawn from some 39,700 retail outlets () and provide sales rankings of music CDs, DVDs, electronic games, and other entertainment products based on weekly tabulations. Results are announced every Tuesday and published in ''Oricon Style'' by subsidiary Oricon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Japan Times
''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by on 22 March 1897, with the goal of giving Japanese people an opportunity to read and discuss news and current events in English to help Japan participate in the international community. In 1906, Zumoto was asked by Japanese Resident-General of Korea Itō Hirobumi to lead the English-language newspaper '' The Seoul Press''. Zumoto closely tied the operations of the two newspapers, with subscriptions of ''The Seoul Press'' being sold in Japan by ''The Japan Times'', and vice versa for Korea. Both papers wrote critically of Korean culture and civilization, and advocated for Japan's colonial control over the peninsula in order to civilize the Koreans. The newspaper was independent of government control, but from 1931 onward, the pa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
32nd Japan Record Awards
The 32nd Annual Japan Record Awards took place at the Nippon Budokan in Chiyoda, Tokyo, December 31, 1990, starting at 6:30PM JST. The primary ceremonies were televised in Japan on TBS. Award winners Pops and Rock *Japan Record Award: ** Tetsuro Oda (composer/arranger), Momoko Sakura (Songwriter) B.B.Queens for " Odoru Pompokolin" *Best Pops Vocalist: **Mariya Takeuchi *Best Rock Vocalist: **Southern All Stars *Best Pops New Artist: **Ninja *Best Rock New Artist: **Tama *Best Foreign Artist: **Madonna Enka and Kayōkyoku *Japan Record Award: ** Takao Horiuchi for "Koiuta Tsuzuri" *Best Vocalist: ** Nobue Matsubara *Best Kayōkyoku New Artist: **Yang Soo Kyung *Best Enka New Artist: **Saori Hareyama External linksOfficial Website {{Japan Record Awards Japan Record Awards Japan Record Awards Japan Record Awards Japan Record Awards 1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shibugakitai
Shibugakitai (The Cool Kid Trio) (シブがき隊) was a Japanese boy band active from 1982 to 1988, managed by (the then-named) Johnny & Associates. Toshikazu Fukawa (Fukkun), Masahiro Motoki (Mokkun), Hirohide Yakumaru (Yakkun) were the three members of the group. History In 1981, Fukawa, Motoki and Yakumaru were appearing regularly as students on the TBS youth drama series ''2-nen B-gumi Senpachi-sensei'' (a spinoff of the popular ''3-nen B-gumi Kinpachi Sensei'' series). Their characters quickly proved to be very popular, and the trio had been given nicknames by viewers as "The Senpachi Trio" (仙八トリオ), "The Cool Trio" (シブいトリオ), and "The Brat Trio" (悪ガキトリオ). Later that year, following an announcement that the series was ending the following spring, Johnny Kitagawa (who had already been managing the trio as junior members) announced that he was debuting the trio as a formal group. Kitagawa formed their group name out a combination of thei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Japan Academy Prize (film)
The , often called the Japan Academy Prize, the Japan Academy Awards, and the Japanese Academy Awards, is a series of awards given annually since 1978 by the Japan Academy Film Prize Association (日本アカデミー賞協会, ''Nippon Akademii-shou Kyoukai'') for excellence in Japanese film. Award categories are similar to the Academy Awards. Venue Since 1998, the venue is regularly held at the Grand Prince Hotel New Takanawa of Prince Hotels in Takanawa, Minato-ku, Tokyo. Admission tickets for this award ceremony are also sold to regular customers. As of 2015, there is a charge of 40,000 Yen which includes a French cuisine course dinner named after the award ceremony. Spectators are expected to attend in semi-formal attire. Elementary school students and younger are not permitted. Award The winners are selected from the recipients of the Award for Excellence. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
