Japan's public broadcaster NHK said Wednesday it will contract entertainers from Starto Entertainment Inc, the successor to the scandal-hit male talent agency Johnny & Associates Inc., after deeming measures to compensate the victims of sexual abuses by its late founder are progressing.

The decision, effective the same day, includes allowing performers from the agency to appear on the network's year-end live music show "Kohaku Uta Gassen," or red and white song contest, NHK President Nobuo Inaba said at a press conference.

"We have confirmed that in addition to compensation for the victims and efforts to prevent recurrence, the separation of management is also steadily progressing," said Inaba.

The broadcaster halted new contracts with performers from the agency in September last year, following allegations from hundreds of people who claimed they were sexually abused by the company's founder, Johnny Kitagawa, who died in 2019.

As a result, no performers from the agency were invited to the year-end music show last year for the first time in 44 years.

Starto Entertainment was established to manage performers from Johnny & Associates in the wake of the scandal, while the company itself was renamed Smile-Up Inc and is now dedicated to providing redress to the sexual abuse victims.

Smile-Up, which will be disbanded once the victims have been compensated, said it had reached compensation agreements with 510 people as of Tuesday.

TV Tokyo Corp, the only major commercial broadcaster to have suspended new contracts with Starto Entertainment performers, also said earlier this month it would end the suspension.

Johnny's was formed in 1962 and went on to propel SMAP, Arashi and numerous other groups to stardom. Allegations against Kitagawa came under renewed scrutiny after a BBC documentary was aired in March last year featuring interviews with multiple people claiming to have been abused by the pop mogul.