#MeToo’s mark on industry

This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘#MeToo’s mark on industry’

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Tuesday, September 26th, and this is your FT News Briefing. It has been six years since the #MeToo movement began. Powerful men were held accountable after women began telling their stories of abuse, coercion and bullying in the workplace. Recently, several chief executives resigned after undisclosed relationships with colleagues were exposed. And Japan is trying to handle bombshell allegations in the entertainment industry.

Kana Inagaki
So in Japan, the #MeToo movement never really took off, and the various sexual harassment allegations that are being made are quite well-known. But there was never the kind of the reckoning that was seen overseas.

Marc Filippino
So on today’s show, we’ll look at whether we’re entering the next phase of the #MeToo movement. But first, an update on the worker strikes going on here in the States. I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

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Workers in the US are starting the week off with a bang. The Hollywood writers’ union and major studios said they reached a deal late on Sunday. The Writers Guild of America said it will stop picketing in Hollywood and New York. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is expected to join the picket line with the United Auto Workers in the state of Michigan today. It’s a historic move for a sitting US president. Republican nominee frontrunner Donald Trump plans to hold a rally in the state tomorrow.

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Two CEOs resigned this month after failing to disclose personal relationships with co-workers. First, it was BP chief executive Bernard Looney. And then Cboe Global Markets head Edward Tilly followed in his footsteps. More and more CEOs are leaving for similar reasons. Half of the forced CEO departures at major US companies last year were because of personal misconduct. So is this the next phase of the #MeToo movement? Here to discuss is the FT’s Brooke Masters. In addition to being the FT’s US financial editor, she writes a business column. Hey, Brooke.

Brooke Masters
Hey, Marc.

Marc Filippino
So what does the nature of these departures tell you about expectations of CEOs and the tolerance for sexual misconduct right now?

Brooke Masters
I think we are seeing that companies are genuinely taking seriously a lot of the new policies many of them put in place in the beginning of the #MeToo movement. If you remember in 2018-ish, there were a lot of revelations that were really horrifying, you know, where people had been, you know, forcing themselves on employees or they’d been having, you know, non-consensual relationships. And as part of that, a number of companies tightened up their disclosure rules, if nothing else. Most companies tended to do things like if you are having a relationship with a co-worker, particularly someone who reports to you in some way, you need to disclose it to the company. And what we are now seeing appears to be CEOs who fall afoul of that part of it, that they were not complete in their disclosures.

Marc Filippino
So it sounds like it’s less about the relationships themselves and more about not following through on the promises that they’ve made to the company.

Brooke Masters
We think so. I mean, the truth is nobody really knows what happened at BP or at least nobody has publicly made clear what happened. And similarly, Cboe has not said what exactly happened. In Looney’s case, the company specifically said that they were upset because 18 months ago there was a complaint about his relationships. They did an investigation and at that time he told the company he had told them everything they needed to know. So when they got a new complaint that included details of things he had not told them, they were like, we’re done. That’s lying.

Marc Filippino
How would you describe where companies are at with instances of misconduct right now?

Brooke Masters
It feels to me like companies are adjusting to the new reality. And it’s been a couple of years, we’re back from Covid, so we’re back in person. And so that probably creates its own temptations. And I do think there is a bit of a reckoning where companies are having to come to terms with the new rules they established and how they play out in principle. I do believe that we will probably see more of this.

Marc Filippino
Brooke Masters is the FT’s US financial editor. She also writes a business column for the FT. Thanks, Brooke.

Brooke Masters
Thanks, Marc.

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Marc Filippino
Japan is also at a crossroads with its #MeToo movement. A sexual abuse scandal has shaken up the country’s entertainment industry. At the centre of it is Johnny Kitagawa. He’s the founder of a talent agency that pioneered the Asian boy band industry. The agency called Johnny & Associates was phenomenally successful. But there was a dark side.

Kauan Okamoto via interpreter
This kind of thing, not just sexual abuse, but other problems. That’s been happening because the media have turned a blind eye.

Marc Filippino
That’s the voice of former Japanese pop idol Kauan Okamoto speaking to France 24 earlier this year about the abuse he says he suffered at the hands of Johnny Kitagawa.

Kauan Okamoto via interpreter
People use their power to crush the dreams of aspiring talent, unless they go through that kind of experience. That’s a really bad thing.

Marc Filippino
Kitagawa died in 2019. He was accused of systematically abusing the boys in his talent agency for decades, at least 100 of them. The agency said it will pay financial compensation to the alleged victims.

Kana Inagaki
Johnny & Associates has very close ties with all of the media groups in Japan, mainly because it is such a prolific producer of these various celebrities.

Marc Filippino
The FT’s Tokyo bureau chief, Kana Inagaki, has been covering the issue.

Kana Inagaki
And so a lot of TV broadcasters depend on Johnny’s talents for TV dramas, variety shows. They really depended on having these celebrities appear in their shows.

Marc Filippino
Kana says Johnny and Associates is incredibly ingrained in Japanese culture.

Kana Inagaki
If you’re living in Japan, there isn’t really a day that goes by that you don’t see a TV advert that is using Johnny’s talents. So in that way, the link between the corporate sponsors and the talent agency is also one of the reasons why it took so long. And even now it is quite difficult for media companies in Japan to investigate the various allegations that surround its founder, Johnny Kitagawa.

Marc Filippino
It took a BBC documentary earlier this year to revive the allegations and this prompted Johnny & Associates to commission an investigation.

Kana Inagaki
The investigation was really quite damning and it was quite thorough as well. And so once those results came out, the corporate sponsors that had long depended on performers at Johnny’s for their TV advertisements had to basically cut off their ties. And so the talk now is that the agency cannot probably survive with the name Johnny’s because people will now associate that brand with the alleged sexual abuse by its founder.

Marc Filippino
Kana says the consequences that Johnny’s is facing could be an inflection point for a #MeToo movement that never really took off in the country.

Kana Inagaki
So in Japan, the various sexual harassment allegations that are being made in the entertainment industry are quite well-known. But there was never the kind of the reckoning that was seen overseas. And so this Johnny scandal is really kind of seen as the moment for Japan, where people are finally coming to terms with the, you know, various sexual harassment that seems to be quite rampant in this industry. But I think the one difference is that even though this is sort of the biggest moment for Japan, it’s still quite unclear whether this Johnny scandal is gonna lead to, like, the investigation of other allegations, because for now, a lot of the debate, the public and the social debate about the scandal is quite limited to Johnny’s and its founder. And so we’ll have to see how widespread this scandal becomes.

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Marc Filippino
Kana Inagaki is the FT’s Tokyo bureau chief.

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You can read more on all of these stories at FT.com for free when you click the links in our show notes. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the latest business news.