Japanese journalist Shiori Ito’s debut documentary “Black Box Diaries” is not only one of the most acclaimed films of the year, but also a high point in Japanese cinema. Nominated for Best Documentary at this year’s Academy Awards — a first for any Japanese director — Ito’s harrowing adaptation of her 2017 memoir “Black Box” has been praised for its depiction of her alleged sexual assault at the hands of a high-profile Japanese journalist, and the ensuing fight for legal justice. But while “Black Box Diaries” continues to rack up an impressive list of plaudits, Ito’s film has been conspicuously absent from theaters in Japan.
Why won’t Japanese theaters screen the film?
Ito’s “advocacy” in the face of “Japan’s society norms toward sexual assault” made her the “face of Japan’s #MeToo Movement,” said The Diplomat. At the same time, her film’s “portrayal of sexual violence and use of contested footage” has put its Japanese theatrical release in “limbo.” Japanese theaters are “refusing” to screen “Black Box Diaries” due to “legal concerns” stemming from allegations by Ito’s former legal team that she’d used “unauthorized security footage and audio in her film,” Japan’s Kyodo News said. The unauthorized material has been a “source of friction” between Ito and the legal counsel that helped her win a civil case against prominent Japanese journalist Noriyuki Yamaguchi, whom Ito alleges raped her in 2015, the BBC said. Yamaguchi has denied the allegations. Ito’s onetime attorneys claim that her using certain hotel CCTV footage not only “violated trust and put her sources at risk,” but happened after the filmmaker vowed “not to use it outside of court proceedings.”
Now that footage has become an “impediment” to getting the film screened in Japan, Deadline said. Distributors and theaters “in this case are more risk averse in Japan than, for example, the States,” said “Black Box Diaries” producer Eric Nyari to the outlet. Not only do they feel “vulnerable to [legal] claims and trouble,” but “a lot of these theaters are not only owned by large corporations, they’re owned by large corporations that also own hotels,” making this a “particularly sensitive case for them.”
Do Japanese cultural taboos play a role?
Ito maintains that the reason her film has struggled to find distribution in her home country is largely connected to the movie’s subject matter, and Japan’s ongoing taboos around addressing sexual assault against women by powerful men. “They know it’s no legal issue,” Ito said to Deadline. “They’re more scared about the public voice.” Ito has also claimed Japan’s reluctance to address #MeToo allegations prompted her to use the contested footage in the first place. Given that there are “people in society who continue to deny sexual violence,” Ito said in a statement regarding the controversy, she came to the conclusion that “to convey the reality of sexual violence that has been locked away in a ‘black box,’ this footage was essential.”
In part, Ito’s willingness to address the issue head-on comes from the fact that she grew up an “outsider in this society,” and has a “very international” and “very different” perspective, said Nyari to The Japan Times. “Particularly on the issues that surround the film: sexual violence, the institutions around it, the laws.”
While there has been no “official explanation” for the lack of in-country distribution, and it “remains unclear” how much of those challenges are based on the legal issues with the film’s footage, Ito insists that ultimately “Japan is still not ready to talk about [it],” said the BBC.