Smile Up Names New Leadership as Noriyuki Higashiyama Prepares to Leave

Smile Up announced on its official website Monday that President and Representative Director Noriyuki Higashiyama and Managing Director Akira Abe will step down. The leadership change takes effect October 1, after their terms expire.

Masayuki Yamada, a lawyer currently serving as the executive responsible for compliance, will become president and representative director. Takayuki Jin will take over as managing director.

Smile Up’s board decided a new leadership structure would be appropriate as the company expects to handle legal proceedings and decisions.

The agency, formerly Johnny & Associates, will continue compensating victims of sexual abuse by its late founder, Johnny Kitagawa. That process began in November 2023. Smile Up will close once compensation is complete.

In October 2023, Higashiyama announced that Johnny & Associates would adopt the Smile Up name that same month. He presented the change as part of the company’s vision for rebuilding fans’ trust.

He had previously ruled out a name change. He argued that, beyond identifying the founder, the name stood above all for performers’ energy and the pride they had built over years.

Johnny & Associates established a separate company, Starto Entertaintment, in December 2023 to handle talent management.

Higashiyama succeeded former agency president Julie Keiko Fujishima in September 2023. He had also faced accusations of sexually assaulting young boys.

Asked about those allegations, Higashiyama said he could not remember whether the reported acts happened. Addressing claims that he bullied younger performers, he acknowledged he might have treated them more strictly.

He also said he might have done things in his youth that he would no longer do. Higashiyama admitted hearing rumors about Kitagawa, but said he had been unable to act and had taken no action.

Higashiyama retired from acting that year. He was the agency’s oldest active member.

In September 2023, the agency publicly acknowledged for the first time that Kitagawa had sexually abused many teenagers aspiring to become pop stars. Fujishima said the abuse spanned the 1970s through the 2010s.

At that September press conference, Fujishima announced she would leave the presidency while remaining the company’s representative director and owner. The agency said it was working to compensate for the harm and prevent further abuse.

After the conference, Japanese sponsors said they would either let their contracts with Johnny’s expire or distance themselves from the agency.

NHK subsequently said it would temporarily stop making new requests for the agency’s entertainers to appear on its programs. That policy included its popular New Year’s Eve music show, Kohaku Uta Gassen.

More people also came forward alleging abuse, including former Kis-My-Ft2 member Kyohei Iida.

Kyodo News reported that Higashiyama said at the 2023 press conference that the compensation committee had received consultations from 478 sexual abuse victims. Of those, 325 were seeking compensation.

The BBC released the hour-long documentary Predator: The Secret Scandal of J-Pop in March 2023. It examined years of sexual abuse allegations from boys in Kitagawa’s agency and the Japanese media’s largely silent response.

In April 2023, Japanese-Brazilian singer and songwriter Kauan Okamoto held a press conference alleging that Kitagawa abused him around 15 to 20 times. He said this happened between 2012 and 2016, while he belonged to the agency.

Okamoto also said he knew at least three other people who had experienced abuse.

Following his appearance, fans and idols held their own press conference that May. They said they had submitted a petition asking Johnny & Associates to apologize and investigate.

An external investigation into Kitagawa began in late May 2023. That August, investigators concluded he had sexually abused agency members for decades and that the agency had concealed his conduct.

Kitagawa’s relatives allegedly knew about his actions and did nothing to stop him.

Kitagawa died in July 2019 at age 87 from a subarachnoid hemorrhage, a type of stroke. Fujishima became president that September.

He founded Johnny & Associates in 1962 after forming the male idol group Johnnys. The agency later established and managed numerous male idol groups, including:

• SMAP
• Arashi
• Tokio
• KinKi Kids
• V6
• KAT-TUN
• Hey! Say! JUMP

Members of idol groups managed by Johnny & Associates are collectively called “Johnny’s.”

Kitagawa faced sexual misconduct allegations earlier in his career. In 1999, Shukan Bunshun magazine ran a 14-week exposé detailing allegations of child abuse and sexual exploitation. Those accusations never led to formal criminal charges.

Kitagawa and Johnny & Associates sued the magazine, which lost the initial trial in March 2002. However, the magazine effectively prevailed on appeal at the Tokyo High Court in July 2003.

The High Court found the alleged victims’ accounts broadly consistent, specific, candid and detailed. It also found that Kitagawa offered neither a concrete counterargument nor evidence rebutting them.

This article has been updated to clarify the background and provide additional information.