Johnny & Associates released a report on Tuesday responding to the backlash that arose over a blacklist of journalists for a news conference addressing sexual abuse allegations by its late founder.

On Oct. 4, public broadcaster NHK reported that the global consulting firm FTI Consulting hired by Johnny & Associates had an “NG (No Good) list” — a list of journalists to avoid calling on during the talent agency’s Oct. 2 event announcing its plans to rebrand. Photographs and the names of publications were included on the list and used to identify the journalists.

Following the news, Johnny & Associates published a detailed report on its website compiled by newly appointed Chief Compliance Officer Masayuki Yamada on Tuesday.

“Neither the Johnny's Office nor (legal firm) Nishimura & Asahi were involved in any way in the creation and sharing of the nomination list with photos,” the report said.

The talent agency said that it only learned about the list when it received inquiries from the media following NHK’s report. Akihiro Nojiri at FTI Consulting, which was in charge of organizing news conferences for the agency, also said that he was not aware of such a list until he received a media inquiry on Oct. 3, the report said.

The report revealed that the list was created on the morning of the news conference on Oct. 2, and was shared with the moderator as well as FTI Consulting staff, against instructions from Johnny & Associates.

According to the report, an unnamed FTI employee denied that the list was intended to deter the moderator from calling on certain reporters, saying “the document was prepared with the intention of accepting questions related to the theme of the news conference.”

The employee also said that he was not aware that the document was against the wishes of Johnny & Associates and other involved parties, and that the list was called “Name of NG (No Good) Reporters” because he “did not think deeply” about it.

The Johnny & Associates report also revealed that during an internal meeting held on Sept. 30 between the talent agency's executives and FTI Consulting, a document containing the blacklist of reporters was passed around, with discussions of prioritizing business reporters at the news conference also taking place, as corporate governance matters were also a target of criticism by the public.

The agency’s newly appointed President Noriyuki Higashiyama, executive Yoshihiko Inohara and Julie Keiko Fujishima — the niece of late founder Johnny Kitagawa — were among those in attendance.

Inohara had questioned the purpose of such a list, but FTI’s Nojiri said that the list was not necessarily a blacklist and that it was a way of identifying reporters that required special attention and consideration.

The report argues that, despite the existence of such a list, both prioritized reporters and "no good" reporters were given equal opportunities to ask questions, with a total of 11.5 minutes and 14.5 minutes, respectively.

Under the recommendation of Hiroshi Kimeda from Nishimura & Asahi, the agency had outsourced work in holding its first news conference addressing sexual abuse claims against Kitagawa on Sept. 7 to FTI Consulting due to its lack of experience in organizing such events, the report said.

The decision to hold the Oct. 2 news conference was made following criticism against its four-hour Sept. 7 conference.

A survey conducted on news organizations by FTI to prepare for the conference showed some comments such as “the Q&A session was poorly organized” and that a reporter was taking too long to ask questions by explaining and expressing their opinions.