United Nations human rights experts are set to conduct interviews with victims of alleged sexual abuse by the late entertainment mogul Johnny Kitagawa during their first official visit to Japan, with sessions scheduled in Tokyo on Tuesday and the city of Osaka on Friday.

The Working Group on Business and Human Rights will investigate the impact of business operations on human rights and the environment in general by meeting various ministries, human rights defenders, academics and representatives of business enterprises.

One of the two experts appointed, Pichamon Yeophantong, arrived on Saturday, followed by working group Chairperson Damilola Olawuyi, who arrived at Tokyo's Haneda Airport during the early hours on Monday. The investigation runs from Monday and the experts will conclude their visit with a news conference on Aug. 4. Places they intend to visit include Tokyo, Osaka, Aichi Prefecture, Hokkaido and Fukushima Prefecture.

"It's about addressing human rights violations. Even today, the victims are still suffering, which is a message I wanted to send (to the world) and that's why the U.N. is coming,” said Junya Hiramoto, a former idol at Johnny & Associates.

Hiramoto, who has been speaking up about the alleged abuse for 35 years, said he contacted the U.N. on June 14. The U.N.'s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights asked to conduct a hearing involving the victims through Sakon Kuramoto, a lawyer with expertise in human rights.

The group will gather its findings and present a report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in June next year. The group's role involves providing advice on human rights violations in the business sector.

The group is made up of five independent experts and was established by the Human Rights Council in 2011.

Yeophantong, an associate professor and head of research at the Deakin University in Australia, specializes in business and human rights as well as national security. She has advised a range of civil society organizations, nongovernmental organizations and government agencies on rights, security and investment issues, including Oxfam and the Australian Water Partnership.

Olawuyi is a professor and UNESCO chair on environmental law and sustainable development at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Qatar. He has extensive experience advising the World Bank, U.N. agencies, governments, corporations and other organizations on business and human rights.

On July 18, a team of third-party experts hired by Johnny & Associates to examine the claims of abuse by Kitagawa announced that they had created a questionnaire for investigative purposes and to delve deeper into the abuse claims. Answers to the questionnaire will not go via the talent agency.

Founded on May 26, the team — comprised of three experts: a lawyer, a psychiatrist and a researcher studying support for sexual abuse victims — won’t be sharing the results of its investigation with the authorities, even if a crime took place, with its head stressing he was acting only in a private capacity.

The announcement of the questionnaire came after it emerged that the U.N. group would be interviewing alleged victims. According to Hiramoto, the Johnny & Associates third-party investigation team started contacting members of the sexual assault victims associations the day after the news came out.

Kazuya Nakamura, a former member of Johnny & Associates who has come forward as a victim of Kitagawa’s sexual abuse, has expressed frustration with the third-party investigation team, saying that it could not be reached, the Associated Press has reported.

Hirokazu Matsuno, the chief Cabinet secretary, said that he was aware of the U.N. working group visit.

“Minister (Masanobu) Ogura is currently chairing a joint meeting of two conferences comprising senior officials from relevant government ministries and agencies, where various perspectives are being heard from experts on strengthening measures (against child sexual abuse),” Matsuno said July 13.

The sexual abuse allegations against Kitagawa, who died at the age of 87 in 2019, garnered both domestic and international attention after the BBC aired a documentary featuring survivors’ accounts in March.