It has been almost three years since sexual assault and harassment in the Japanese film industry was first widely reported in 2022. It seems that there is no end to the number of people who prey on women who aspire to enter the entertainment industry. A former voice actress, now a freelance narrator and MC in her 40s, says with a hint of regret, “ At first I didn’t trust them at all, and I even registered my phone number as a scam artist. She is currently working as a freelance narrator and MC. In February 2025, Ms. A was approached by a man named X, a former member of Johnny’s Jr. who claimed to be the president of an entertainment agency. X said, ‘I have deep connections in the entertainment industry, so I can introduce you to jobs,’ but of course I didn’t think it was such a good idea. But X used all kinds of tricks to get Ms. A to trust him. He was a fat, middle-aged man with an appearance not unlike a former Johnny’s Jr. “He claimed to have been Kazuya Kamenashi’s classmate and spoke fluently and without hesitation about how he was supposed to debut as NEWS and how he was told by Mr. Johnny. In fact, he once met a former member of KAT-TUN through X. In fact, he once met a former KAT-TUN member through X. “This is Taguchi Junnosuke,” he said. I was taken to a show club produced by Taguchi-san in Kabukicho, Shinjuku. There, Mr. Taguchi and Ms. Yamana were talking so friendly that I believed they were really from the entertainment world. I was also taken to an actual entertainment agency and introduced to the president. Since then, she has been cheated out of 42 million yen over the past six months. The scheme was as follows: “The work that X brings to me is not for the public. X brought me jobs from major companies and animation companies that were widely known to the public. Many of the jobs paid more than 1 million yen, including a 25 million yen job as the lead voice actor in an anime adaptation of a new work by Eiichiro Oda, the author of the One Piece series. In the case of a 25 million yen job, the buyout would be 1 million yen. I was not familiar with the rules of the entertainment industry, but I was convinced that such a thing was possible, so I did as I was told and transferred the money. According to the list of jobs she wrote down, she has worked for a wide variety of companies, including Japan Post Insurance Company, Tokyu Kabukicho Tower, and Summer Sonic 2025. According to the list of jobs he left behind, he has narrated a wide variety of genres, including “Japan Post Insurance,” “Tokyu Kabukicho Tower,” and “Summer Sonic 2025,” as well as voice-over work in actual animated films such as “One Piece,” “Precure,” and “Doraemon. As a result, I was offered 148 jobs and transferred a total of 42 million yen. Some of them were actually recorded in the studio, but in the end, none of the jobs I was offered came to fruition… In late August, when I finally told him that my savings were about to run out and that I had ‘no more money,’ he said, ‘I can appear as a narrator on “Matrix Consulting” (NTV), so I’ll have to borrow from my husband. But I want you to prepare a purchase amount of 1.5 million yen. I thought this was ridiculous and asked for a refund, but as a result, not a single yen has been repaid until now. The money he was cheated out of was money he had saved by working hard while battling a chronic illness. I was diagnosed with a developmental disorder when I was in college. I never knew when I would be unable to work, so after I entered the workforce, I always saved and saved. I had a relapse of depression after the Corona disaster, and I quit my job to recuperate, but just when I was feeling well enough to try YouTube and Pococha, my savings suddenly went to zero. I met him at a street live performance. I met him in October 2024. I was doing a street live performance in front of Omiya Station in Saitama Prefecture when X passed by and said to me, ‘That was interesting. We exchanged contact information. In 2021, at the age of 49, I took a leap of faith and started my career as a singer-songwriter. A tumor was found in my spine, and as I was battling the disease after major surgery, X said to me, ‘I’m in the entertainment business, so I’ll support you. Later, he told me that I could be featured in a TV program and that he would organize a live concert and take a video of it. The victims’ testimonies all share the same tactic of approaching them through distribution apps or street live shows under the guise of coincidence, and then using the name of an actual TV program or celebrity to make them trust them. A woman in her twenties, Ms. C., said she was subjected not only to money but also to “sexual assault. I wanted to be an influencer or a model, so I was streaming on a video distribution site. In June, she was summoned to Tokyo on the pretext of “introducing a job. The first night, I stayed at the same hotel. The first night, we stayed at the same hotel, and I was asked to take a picture of my naked backside, saying, ‘I need material for Mrs. GREEN APPLE’s music video. He gave me 10,000 yen on the spot, and I couldn’t refuse. From there, for over a week, under the guise of “sales,” Ms. C was forced to work with X. “He is really powerful in the entertainment industry,” Ms. C said. I thought he was a really powerful person in the entertainment industry, and I was scared of him because he sometimes suddenly became moody. Then, on June 17, at a hotel, he said to me, ‘If you want to be a model, let’s lose your current weight.’ He said, ‘I can make you thinner by pressing pressure points on your back and body, so let’s do it. I can make you thinner by pressing pressure points on your back and other parts of your body. He started by massaging my feet, then my back and calves, but then he touched my breasts and even put his fingers in my vagina, saying that there were pressure points there. After that, they made me lick X’s male genitalia, saying that it was to strengthen my facial muscles, and they demanded me to have pseudo-sex with them, saying that celebrities do it too to make their bodies look nice. It was really unpleasant and scary, but I thought that if I resisted at this point, my life as an entertainer would be over, so I could do nothing but comply. On the last day, I was told that I would be allowed to appear in a promotional PV for a short animation by the company that produced “Blade of Demon’s Destruction,” and I was paid 300,000 yen. I regret why I believed them at the time.” Even after Ms. C returned to her hometown, the “sexual assault” continued. When I asked for advice on diet and exercise, she instructed me to send her naked photos. For some reason, they also asked me to take off my underwear so that they could get a good view of my bureau. …… The damage caused by the series of sexual assaults was so severe that Ms. C began to have frequent flashbacks, and her poor health began to interfere with her delivery activities. After that, X repeatedly asked her to come to Tokyo, but she refused. The magazine asked Junnosuke Taguchi about his relationship with X, but his agency replied, “We have no recollection or acquaintance with him. I have no recollection or acquaintance with him, nor am I aware that he was a member of Johnny’s Jr. When we further asked SMILE-UP. if he was a member of Johnny’s Jr., the answer was, “We have not confirmed that he was a member in the past. X had been deceiving women one after another based on his career history, which was covered up with outright lies. In order to verify the truth, this magazine directly contacted X, who lives in the Kanto area. Surprisingly, he admitted to all the “fraudulent acts. He said, “To be honest, there were a lot of lies about Mr. A. Most of the money went to pay for alcohol. Most of the money was spent on alcohol. Due to personal circumstances, I felt lonely and couldn’t sleep at night, so I turned to alcohol and couldn’t get out. I feel that I made them feel bad, so I want to repay them somehow.” On the other hand, he strongly defended the case of Ms. B, saying, “I had a job, but it was not aired due to the TV station’s circumstances. On the other hand, he claims that he had a job for Ms. B, but it was not aired because of the TV station’s circumstances. I used to run a salon in Tokyo, where I treated people who wanted to slim their bodies or enlarge their breasts, and I massaged Ms. C in the same way, and she agreed in advance that I would undress her and touch her genitals. I also told her that when I was working on her lower abdomen, there was something like an air bubble in her vagina, and that I would put my fingers inside to squash it. It is also true that the male genitals are used to train the facial expressions. I apologize if I made you feel uncomfortable,” he said, insisting that he had received prior consent for the series of acts and that there was no problem. Mr. A, the man in the beginning of this article, is indignant. Once, after I protested, he came to me with several hundred thousand yen to apologize. However, I have no intention of accepting a single yen. I just hope that there will be no more victims.
