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Paper short abstract

In the wake of revelations of abuse perpetrated by the late idol producer Johnny Kitagawa, this paper outlines and evaluates current efforts towards safeguarding the next generation of idol performers in Japan and beyond, incorporating insights from history, survivors and policymakers.

Paper long abstract

Content warning: This paper contains general discussion of child sexual abuse as a societal phenomenon.

In 2023, a BBC documentary investigating allegations of child sexual abuse against the late Japanese idol producer Johnny Kitagawa prompted many more survivors to come forward. Acknowledging past failures, agency that used to share his name has now rebranded itself, and is overtly committed to becoming a sector leader on the prevention of the recurrence of such abuse. But why are so many children and young people working as idols in the first place? And now the attention to Kitagawa’s abuse has died down, is enough now being done to safeguard the idols of the future?

This paper will begin with a brief social history of youth and popular music in postwar Japan, and the development of idols as a distinct style of production and performance. It will then draw out the sociohistorical roots for the persistence of key barriers to improving the safeguarding of children and young people in Japan’s entertainment industries, based on interviews conducted by the author and co-researcher Professor Kaori Suetomi with survivors and policymakers in Tokyo in the summer of 2024.

It will conclude by evaluating the safeguarding potential of a new voluntary system for checking the criminal records of those working with aspiring idols in Japan (the “Japanese DBS” system). This paper has implications for the study of child performer regulations across East Asia (such as “fostered idols” in China, and the management of K-pop idols), and argues that policy reforms to protect children and young people who perform as idols cannot happen without a consideration of the specific sociohistorical context of youth and popular music performance.