Johnny & Associates, one in every of J-pop’s most well-known leisure businesses, has retired the company name as a part of its compensation to the skills who experienced sexual assault by the hands of its late namesake founder, Johnny Kitagawa.

The company has split into two: one firm, named “Smile-Up,” will be responsible for compensating victims.

Another but unnamed firm will home entertainers. Fans of Johnny & Associates have been tapped to determine what the identify of the brand new company ought to be.

The worldwide reckoning of Kitagawa’s abuse has led to the company’s public downfall. It’s additionally catalyzed many feelings amongst victims of abuse and followers of the male expertise produced by Johnny & Associates (also known as Johnny’s).

Some victims have slammed Johnny & Associates’ rebranding efforts as a meaningless symbolic gesture, a determined try to remain afloat amidst requires the corporate to close down.

Some diehard fans have additionally urged the company to be accountable to victims.

But how followers’ advocacy and commentary will form a reckoning concerning the tradition of sexual assault that has been uncovered within the company and the Japanese entertainment industry at large stays to be seen.

Fall of a titan: Johnny & Associates

Allegations and rumours of systemic sexual assault had plagued Johnny & Associates for decades.

Kitagawa, the late founding father of the male-only company, was often known as the “king of Japanese boy bands,” answerable for producing beloved boy bands and male leisure personalities. He was accused a number of occasions of assaulting younger boys signed to his label from the Nineteen Fifties to the 2010s.

Despite this, Kitagawa escaped culpability and punishment up till his demise in 2019. This was aided by his energy within the leisure business and what Hiroshi Fujita, journalism professor at Sophia University in Tokyo, has characterised as Japanese media’s “cautious and timid” strategy to coping with “sensitive subjects.”

‘Predator’ documentary

At one time limit, it appeared that Johnny & Associates can be perpetually untouchable.

Then in March 2023, the BBC launched a documentary, Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop. The documentary uncovered Kitagawa’s abuse allegations as “Japan’s secret sex scandal” in addition to the nationwide media cover-up that impeded justice.

After an explosive response to the documentary nationally and internationally, together with information of a United Nations intervention to interview victims of abuse, Julie Fujishima, niece of Kitagawa who took over as president of Johnny & Associates, admitted the allegations were true and issued an apology.

Now underneath the management of the brand new CEO and former Johnny’s expertise Noriyuki Higashiyama, the corporate guarantees reparations for victims.

But with Higashiyama himself facing sexual abuse allegations and Japanese firms from McDonald’s to Nissan cutting ties with the company and their abilities, followers have been left questioning what the long run holds for the once-titan firm of Japanese leisure.

‘Parasocial’ relations

As sociologist Karen Sternheimer explains in Celebrity Culture and the American Dream, what followers usually really feel for his or her favorite music star or leisure firm is vicarious and dangerously “parasocial” — primarily based on a relationship they think about having with one other individual whom they don’t personally know.

This might imply a fan’s love for a sure entertainer might cause them to align themselves emotionally, ideologically and even politically with the entertainer, defending them towards criticism and shutting down unflattering discourse about them.

Company, model loyalty?

In some circumstances, followers’ conception of their favorite superstar’s stardom can prolong to the corporate that produced these abilities.

Fans of Disney stars Hilary Duff, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez might even see themselves extra typically as “Disney fans,” whereas followers of Korean lady teams Girls’ Generation, Red Velvet and aespa, produced by Korean report label and administration firm SM Entertainment, might think about themselves “SM fans.”

This is particularly true when firms strategically encourage fanatical behavior and mobilize affective attachments across the firm model.

Johnny & Associates actually suits the invoice with their creation of fan communities round their male abilities, or as they’re colloquially recognized, Johnny’s Idols (or Janīzu).

Fans will be overzealous

Diehard followers have been recognized to defend their favorite celebrities towards criticism, shutting down viewpoints they understand might tarnish their idol’s picture.

Music critics have expressed concern over criticizing Taylor Swift due to her overzealous followers, who author Kara Kennedy has known as “cult-like.”

Journalists like Juwon Park and Raphael Rashid, talking of Okay-pop fan dedication, have sounded the alarm over the methods followers have attacked those that dare smash the enjoyable of worshipping their favorite entertainers by trying via crucial lenses.

Just as with Okay-pop followers disrupting Trump rallies in 2020 and spreading public health awareness on-line within the early interval of the COVID-19 pandemic, superstar fan tradition’s appreciable social media energy and talent to arrange can remodel client energy into sustained activist potential.

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However, such followers can even simply as simply mobilize to maintain the status quo.

If observations of present fan tradition are any indication, we should always anticipate that some followers may stay emotionally invested within the company, whatever the dire implications of the scandal.

Upholding accountability

More reverberations ought to be anticipated following a September announcement about victims seeking criminal charges. Johnny & Associates followers should not use their energy and presence inside transnational networks to divert consideration away from the expertise company’s abuse.

Documentaries, YouTube series and editorial exposés have been essential for furthering actions to carry sexual predators in leisure industries accountable.

Particularly at a time when victims are talking out, the general public, together with followers, might want to determine how their actions, cultural commentary and assist for victims can most productively contribute to this reckoning.