With over 478 victims coming forward, the late Johnny Kitagawa’s talent agency’s decision to continue has been branded ill-advised at best, and a joke at worst.

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00:00 Pete’s Fancy New Car
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10:07 News of the Week: The Johnny Kitagawa Allegations
21:16 Canoeing in Japan?
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37 Comments

  1. The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing – Edmund Burk

  2. At the end of all of this, the late inaction of the new networks were not only ineffective but also actively harmful to the talents, who are the at the disadvantaged position yet again

  3. Isn’t there some huge scandal right now roiling the entire used car market there? You’re sure you didn’t get screwed right?

  4. I got diddled in school, and I've been telling everyone from the police, to random assholes online. No one gives a shit. Unless you're wealthy.

  5. Good to know, *I guess*, that the western ms media aren't the only thoroughly corrupt and disgusting organizations.

  6. OMG, I KNEW IT!!!! I f-ing knew Higashiyama was just like Johnny. Maybe not holding as much power, but damn, I knew the guy was off. People kept telling me I'm weird when I said he's creeping me out. I know, for now it's just an investigation. I will keep watching this unfold closely and I bet that my gut feeling is right.

    So, now that this is out of the way, I'm sorry if this gets long and won't make a lot of sense, this is the only channel covering this story that I can understand, so I will ramble right here in the comment section. Please, feel free to ignore me, I just need to get a thing or two off my chest.

    I feel extremely sorry for all the talents who are now facing new hardships. I wish all of them nothing but the best and I hope they can pick up their activities. Especially among the older talents there are many who didn't get a very good education. The agency did not support school education, restricted it even, making the young men choose between a career and higher education – until Sakurai Sho, who successfully stood up against the stupid policy and got a degree. Once the spell was broken many followed in his footsteps, but prior to that there weren't any such options. And a good number of these people are producers, artists, authors these days, among others things. Stage plays, single releases, music videos, books… entire solo career projects.Their work is existential to these talents. My heart truly breaks for them, especially since I've followed a number of them for over 15 years now. KinKi Kids, Kanjani8, Arashi… They have all brought a lot of joy into my life and the least they should be getting for all their hard work is the security of staying in business.

    I was pretty surprised when this story suddenly exploded. Reports of alleged abuse have been surfacing for decades. I have to admit, though, that most of that was "old news" about things that allegedly happened many many years ago. It was a big shock to me when one former but still pretty young member of the agency mentioned in an interview with "arama they didn't" that he knew about practices of sexual services being "offered" by the talents for job opportunities. (Unfortunately the interview cannot be viewed anymore in its original form. Two days after the release, certain parts were removed.) I had truly deluded myself into thinking that the abuse was a thing of the past. That interview absolutely rattled my image of the agency. Maybe that's what made this report already different from the rest. But Johnny had already passed away and so I decided that it was best to let the past rest… There were visible changes going on, after all. So I really hoped that things would be looking up and change for the better. Then came the day on which Takizawa, still pretty newly appointed vice president, announced that he was leaving the agency. That was the day something very fundamentally changed. Takizawa took off and he has since started a rival agency. He has already signed contracts with a good number of former members of Johnny's agency. So, I will now also be looking very closely at him and what he will be doing. Who knows, maybe this is his revenge for all the terrible things that happened. He got himself high up there, only to abuse the power that he gained to get people out (those contracts are no joke) and offer them a better option. When there was a recent report on how more people came forward with new allegations, I was truly shocked. It showed once again how systemically and how recently abuse happened inside the agency and it really broke my heart.

    All of that being said, Johnny's idols were a big part of my world as I grew into an adult. Via their influence I started to really get into Japanese culture and language. I've visited Japan five times thus far and hope to return again. I even visited idol concerts while I was there. I bought the merch and the shop photos. Looking back, it was a very unique experience. And I will always and forever support KinKi Kids. I still buy their concert releases to this day, because they're awesome.

    Okay, that's everything for now, I think. I apologise again for the big chaotic mess this must be. Just loads of thoughts needing to be put out there in the middle of the night.

  7. Yo as a another creator who likes to make ugc ads what a amazing hook at the beginning saying it’s going to get demonetized and probably won’t be on YouTube for long , I’m immediately hooked good job broski! Been a fan for like a billion years now btw

  8. You know that’s the reason why K-pop is so gay since they literally copied everything from Japan

  9. I really love how Pete went straight in like "fuck YouTube if they demonetize us". George Carlin made a really big point of how every generation we make softer and softer language. It feels that way with things like r*pe and assault. Sugar coating stuff like this does "dull the knife" so to speak. I feel like people who talk about these things owe it to the victims to not sugar coat it. These creeps deserve to be shown as the trash they are.

  10. I wish Pete hadn't ground everything to a halt by making speeches. We already know that kiddy-fiddling is bad. Why do people feel the need to make long rambling statements when something bad happens? Maybe a hangover from his radio days…

  11. I feel like japanese entertainment is manage by bunch of yakuzas, they're weird.

  12. Fair play to Pete for calling out the YT overlords and covering the story properly

  13. I wonder what extent the 'splitting it into two companies' is to allow them to focus on compensation, and how much is a dodgy Johnson and Johnson-style move to try and limit the liability to the company. I don't know if this is possible in Japanese law like it apparently is in the States.

  14. Pete let me know when you imported the toyota so I can start low balling the guy offers saying actually its not the only one in the UK 😅😂😂

  15. The reason why YouTube don't want you speaking about such things is because the majority of YouTubers are woefully ignorant about anything outside of their tiny bubbles so they risk being sued, this also opens up YouTube to being sued. I'm fairly certain that their advertisers don't really want their names associated with negative topics either. It's an understandable standpoint. The one thing that needs fixing with YouTube is the copyright nonsense if you're recording in a public space and audio has to be stripped because there's ambient music in the background. YouTube should be fighting in the courts for its creators that this falls under fair use provided it's not the main focus of the audio interest in the scene. But yeah, serious topics such as this that creators have zero expertise of should probably be avoided.

  16. I don't know how Johnny's Entertainment lasted as long as it did. As far back as early 2000's there are already rumors of Kitagawa's deeds.

  17. On the Toyota who is going to work on it when it breaks? Where will you get parts? Will this be your only car? Most people who have imported jdm cars that never sold in their country basically drive it little and when things break they spend months waiting for basic parts.

  18. You want a toll road then drive the Kansas turnpike, I used to have to hit it once a year and I dont miss it one bit. If you do take the turnpike try to stay in Salina at the holiday inn, it's the nicest building in the state😅😂

  19. It doesn't happen often, but it's very obvious in today's episode , but Pete has this tendency to drone on and on. I get that the topic is heavy, but I feel that it's because it's such a depressing topic that Pete just goes on in that monotonous voice and constant stammering. It's very grating to the ears.

  20. We need to dig a little deeper and get the right information on this story.
    There are definitely victims, but the number of people who are currently applying includes many who are not named in the office.
    Some of them are just looking for a deposit and have not actually been interviewed.

    Because the problem is so big, the media is sensationalizing and overreacting, and the true nature of the damage is not being seen.
    The actual damage has not been fully revealed, and the only thing that has been discussed is the future guarantee, money, and the office.
    The CEO and vice president of the victims' group have said that they want to return to this office, and they have received a lot of backlash from other people.
    After all, there is a mix of people who want the money and the real victims.

    What's worse, the media was the one who originally cozied up and hid these things from the public.
    Now they have become the ones to report the news, and they report the news as if they are not at fault, and they criticize the office one-sidedly.
    They don't realize that they were complicit in this problem, and there's no doubt that it will happen again in the future.

    This issue alone will become a quagmire, and this media collusion has also happened in KPOP and has become a source of criticism.

    This is probably not only in Japan, but all over the world, and it's all about money.

  21. It was nice to hear .. Japanese mentioning Miami Vice.. old good TV series.. usually it came on Saturdays.. and Crocket so stylish as ever..

  22. If anyone is going to play chris in movie it should be Andrew Garfield and Sydney Sweeney playing Sharla with Charlie Days as Connor lol

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