last year, we revealed howjohnny kitagawa, the godfather ofj—pop, had spent a lifetime sexually abusing some of the young boys in his talent agency, boys that dreamed of becoming pop stars. loud cheering. since then, almost 1,000 men, ranging in age from 20 to 70, have come forward as survivors of kitagawa's abuse. in the aftermath of the scandal, the ceo resigned and the company, johnny & associates, was dissolved. japan's age of consent has gone from 13 to 16 and the prime minister is under pressure to strengthen sexual abuse laws. senior figures at the company have apologised publicly, but beyond the pr and the press conferences, there's another story — victims and their families facing scepticism, leading to life—changing consequences...

..and a company drowning in the scale of injustice. i'm mobeen azhar, and i'm back injapan to investigate the aftermath of the biggest child sex abuse scandal in japanese history. i've been watching this story unfold blow by blow for more than a year from the other side of the world, so it's so nice to be back injapan so i can be on the ground and actually get a handle on what's been happening.

it's hard to grasp the scale of this story. johnny kitagawa died in 2018. his company, johnny & associates, ruled the entertainment industry for decades. even after his death, they seemed unstoppable. but the revelations of abuse in 2023 brought the empire to its knees and its 60—year—old legacy to an end. since then, a new company has been set up to deal solely with the compensation ofjohnny�*s survivors. it's called smile—up. since our investigation in 2023, almost 1,000 men have come forward as survivors of kitagawa's abuse. their testimonies have fuelled a national conversation

and even ushered in changes in legislation. you could assume that survivors have seen an outpouring of public support. but some survivors who've spoken out have faced notjust suspicion, but anger, too. in september 2023, one man went public with his story... ..only to attract an onslaught of condemnation. doorbell pings. i've come to meet the woman he was married to for ten years. hello. how are you doing? hi. are you 0k? nice to meet you. 0k, thank you. she's asked us not to show her face. what was your husband like? tell me some of the nice things you remember about him. when you met him, did you know he'd been injohnny & associates?

did your husband ever talk to you aboutjohnny kitagawa himself? the story was very big injapan in 2023. did that start a new conversation? how did people respond to him?

we're heading to thejohnny & associates building, or what used to be thejohnny & associates building, because, of course, that company no longer exists. an interview request went in and they came back with a one—line email thatjust said, "we will cooperate," which is a good sign. but they want to have a meeting first with no cameras. the last time i was at this place, i was being escorted off by security... i believe we already replied to you. they've replied to say that they don't want to respond to the allegations. ..so to be invited back and into the building is really significant. 0ur meeting with smile—up went on for a couple of hours, and the question of someone

speaking to us on the record went unanswered. johnny kitagawa. he was a towering figure injapanese entertainment. this scandal made headlines around the world. the united nations is. investigating allegations of sexual abuse. even the un got involved and sent in a task force to look at workplace exploitation in the entertainment industry. johnny & associates talents have exposed deeply alarming allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse. and in response, smile—up appointed three formerjudges to set up a victim relief committee and lead the compensation process. but with smile—up providing no breakdown of how much has been paid and what for, a lawyer representing a group of survivors told me things were opaque and lacking transparency. smile—up only say 249 people have accepted compensation offers.

there isn't even a total pay—out figure. as of march 2024, 964 men have come forward to the victim relief committee, alleging they were sexually abused by kitagawa. within days of it being up and running, smile—up put out a statement that read, "we have received information that there were cases "where people who are most likely not victims "are telling false stories, "using the testimonies of real victims." as more people spoke out, smile—up put a statement on their website. did your husband ever speak to you about that statement? what kind of stuff were people saying to him?

how did that make him feel? how did you learn about what had happened? when did you hear? do you have any understanding of why he got to a point where he wanted to end his life?

how are you coping with what's happened? why did you decide to speak to me and not show your face? smile—up told us their victim relief committee and counsellors both

contacted him twice, but it's unclear when that happened. quite often, we think about survivors of abuse and we think about the effect on them. but the fact is, whatjohnny kitagawa did hasn'tjust affected the people he abused, it's affected their families and their children, and it will continue to go on until there's a real semblance ofjustice. but what she described is notjustice. what she described is someone being brave enough to share what happened to them, and then that being construed as an invite for online abuse, for condemnation, for people passing judgment, for people being upset that concerts have been cancelled. that is just beyond belief. kitagawa's abuse was the biggest scandal in japanese entertainment history. the company has formally ceased

to exist, but the boybands and their fandom are still going strong, with over 11 million subscribers to the fan club. the shops selling merch no longer carry thejohnny & associates motif, as if it's been wiped from history. they're nowjust called pop up stores. for some fans, whilst they condeanohnny�*s abuse, even the name change is too big a reaction. does it affect your fandom in any way?

some fans can separate the boybands in the shadow of kitagawa's abuse. but i'm not convinced it's that simple. the empire was built on exploitation, and many survivors and their families don't have the luxury of putting it behind them. after another meeting at the company, they still haven't agreed to an on—screen interview. they did have a suggestion, though. the pr team said there's a story they think we should be looking at, a kind of alternative take. they proceeded to wheel out these three survivors of abuse, who then went on to tell us that, "in their view", there's a whole bunch of people that claim to be survivors of abuse who are lying. it's quite bizarre, considering this is the biggest

child sex abuse story in the history ofjapan, and they think we should be following the story of people trying to scam the system. while smile—up appeared to be distracted by allegations of false claims, there seems to be a whole new story that's going under the radar involving claims of other abusers. a survivor of kitagawa's abuse that went public last year has serious concerns about whether the company is really getting to grips with this problem. akimasa joined the agency as a junior over 25 years ago, when he was just 13 years old. akimasa. hello. mobeen. how are you doing? i've got very cold hands. it's nice to meet you. nice to meet you too. were you encouraged by how the story was being reported, the stuff people were saying in the public space? yeah. it was huge that the ceo, you know, of formerjohnny &

associates admitted the sexual assault ofjohnny kitagawa happened. at the same time, i feel like there's some... there are still some issues that are hidden. just explain that to me. what kind of issues? there was a report that says there were some staff members who were sexually abusing the boy talent as well. those people, those staff members, do you know their names? yeah, i actually know the name. and, yeah, iactually know the person. so what i want to ask is, is this issue really solved, you know? i want them to take the responsibility, you know. if abuse at the agency extends beyond kitagawa, any semblance of justice seems even further away. in fact, there are a whole new set of questions that must be answered.

higashiyama, the ceo of smile—up, has agreed to talk. keep in mind that higashiyama is someone that came through the johnny system. he's a star in his own right. he was an actor and he's retired to take up this role. and this will be the first time that anyone in the history of smile—up and the decades—long history ofjohnny & associates, anyone senior has ever done a one—on—one interview. so i think it's a real shot to try to get some answers. there's. .. there's quite a lot of people outside the room waiting with higashiyama. i think there's a bit of tension about when we're going to start. so they're just waiting to come in. everything is set.

mr higashiyama, over 950 people have come forward. how are they being processed? are survivors offered counselling? but what about in terms of professional help? i'm talking about speaking to a counsellor. you'll be aware of a survivor of abuse who went public with their story and they got online abuse, they ended up taking their own life. i want you to speak directly

to people who go online... ..and suggest that they are not telling the truth. what would you say to them? do you acknowledge that perhaps it's irresponsible for a company like smile—up, with all of this power, referencing on their website the idea of people falsifying testimonies?

in this particular case, there was a culture of this survivor of abuse effectively being bullied. do you worry that your company might be contributing to that culture? we've spoken to a former junior who has said that they are aware of abuse at the hands of another member of staff in addition tojohnny kitagawa. are you aware of those allegations? isn't that information that you should be handing over

to the police? morally, wouldn't it be the right thing to do? have you asked the survivors in those particular cases if they want to pursue criminal proceedings? in the build—up to this meeting, i met with your pr team and they suggested that we meet with survivors of abuse. and at that meeting, they shared with us that, in their view, many people who are coming forward and making claims are not telling the truth.

i want to understand, what was the objective of that process? have you got any formal background in social work, delivering justice for survivors of sexual abuse? do you feel that the public should have confidence in you leading smile—up? this peek into the inner

workings of smile—up tells us that the desire to do the right thing is meaningless without a willingness to admit the scale of the problem and an acknowledgement ofjust how many lives the abuse continues to affect. higashiyama is struggling in the aftermath of the biggest sexual abuse scandal in japanese history. the industrial scale of abuse continues to affect and ruin lives across japan.

the safety of children and justice for survivors must be the priority. with these things still in the balance, this chapter in japanese history is still being written.

hello. the weather will be throwing all sorts at us over the next few days — some wet weather, some warm weather and some windy weather, particularly driven by storm kathleen, a storm named by the irish weather service, for impacts it will have in the republic of ireland over the weekend. but for northern and western parts of the uk, it will bring gales and the risk of disruption. here is storm kathleen developing, still well away to the south—west of our shores. but low pressure already in charge of the scene for friday, rain and snow across scotland, that tending to peter out, but more rain pushing into southern scotland, later. for northern ireland, bands of showery rain with sunny spells in between, england and wales seeing a day of sunny spells and showers. it will be quite windy, particularly around western and southern coasts, but pretty warm — 15 degrees for belfast, 18 for norwich. still cold in the north of scotland, but it will turn milder here, as we go through friday night. further bands of heavy rain driving northwards, turning increasingly windy around some western parts, but a very mild start

to the weekend. down towards the south, 12 or 13 degrees, first thing on saturday. so storm kathleen, this deep area of low pressure, well to the west of us, but coming close enough to bring some very strong winds, and with those winds coming from the south, well, they will be pulling some really warm air into the mix. it is likely that saturday will be the warmest day of the year so far, with some outbreaks of rain moving northwards across scotland, showers following on behind, some decent sunny gaps in between, but i think it is the strength of the wind that could cause some issues, especially around western coasts. we'll see gusts of 50, 60, maybe 70 mph in exposed spots. so that could cause some travel disruption, maybe a little bit of damage. temperature—wise, though, well, values up to 20 or 21 degrees in eastern england, and certainly much, much warmer than it has been across the north of scotland. now, storm kathleen, this area of low pressure continuing to track to the northwest of us as we move through saturday night into sunday. still a lot of isobars

squeezing together on this chart for sunday, so still very windy, the strongest winds up towards the north west of scotland, where there will be gales. yes, there'll be some sunny spells, but there'll be some heavy, perhaps thundery, showers, and it's going to be a windy day for all of us. not quite as warm on sunday — temperatures between ten and 17 degrees.

live from washington, this is bbc news. just hours after pressure from the white house, israel will open humanitarian aid routes into gaza. rescue efforts continue at a popular national park in taiwan, where hundreds remain trapped after a powerful earthquake. and on the 56th anniversary of the assassination of dr martin luther king junior — we'll hearfrom his son — about the civil rights leader's legacy.

hello, i'm carl nasman. ministers in israel have approved the opening of new aid corridors to gaza hours after us presidentjoe biden told israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu by phone that israel must prevent civilian harm to ensure continued us support. for the first time since the start of the israel—gaza war, israel will temporarily reopen the erez crossing in northern gaza. ashdod port will also be opened for humanitarian deliveries. and more aid trucks from jordan will be allowed to traverse israel to gaza. the call between biden and netanyahu was their first since an israeli air strike killed 7 international aid workers from the charity group world central kitchen — sparking international outrage. the white house is urging israel to allow a "dramatic" increase of aid into gaza within "hours or days." in a statement released after the israeli ministers approved opening aid corridors,

the white house national security council said: