J-pop idol alleges he was sexually abused by boyband music mogul

• Japanese pop star Kauan Okamoto alleges he was sexually abused by Johnny Kitagawa as a teenager.
• Okamoto said he was abused up to 20 times from 2012 to 2016, starting when he was 15.

A Japanese pop star has claimed he was sexually abused by Johnny Kitagawa, an American-Japanese music producer and talent manager who died in 2019.

Kauan Okamoto, a former member of Kitagawa's talent group for young teens, Johnny's Juniors, alleged he was abused up to 20 times from 2012 to 2016, with the first instance occurring when he was 15, the BBC reported.

Speaking at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo, Okamoto said that Kitagawa would come into his bedroom, remove his clothes, and perform oral sex on him. Okamoto added that he would pretend to be asleep whilst he endured the alleged abuse.

Okamoto, who came forward following the publication of the BBC's new documentary "Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop," is not the first person to have accused Kitagawa of sexual abuse.

Koji Kita — a former member of the J-Pop band Four Leaves, which was managed by Kitagawa — had made allegations of sexual abuse against Kitagawa in 1988. Okamoto said he believes Kitagawa may have abused as many as 100 boys, per the BBC report.

But Kitagawa consistently denied all accusations of assault and abuse.

He attempted to sue the Japanese media outlet Shukan Bunshun for publishing six boys' accounts of sexual abuse at his hands. Kitagawa initially won the defamation case, and was awarded ¥8.8 million, which would now be around $65,750, in damages, according to The Guardian.

But the magazine appealed the decision, and in 2004 the Tokyo High Court ruled that the magazine had sufficient reason to publish the allegations of sexual assault.

Kitagawa was one of the biggest names in J-pop before his death, having established "a monopoly on the creation of boy bands in Japan for 43 years," The Guardian said.

Teruzane Utada, a Japanese music executive producer and father of J-pop star Hikaru Utada, told The Guardian that Kitagawa was "one of the pioneers of the entertainment business in Japan."

"But he only handles boys, and that's very special," Utada added.

Kitagawa died from a stroke at the age of 87.

His funeral was attended by hundreds of celebrities — many of whom he managed, the Japan Times reported, with then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe even sending a telegram of condolence to the event.