Japanese film and the political right

[Aaron Gerow]

Some of this came up in the Satchi thread, but the last month has seen a 
flurry of laws long desired by the political right passing the Diet with 
little discussion and little effort to garner public support.  Whether or 
not you agree with this assessment, there are many intellectual 
commentators who are arguing that this is is not only an exercise of 
power threatening a fundamental undermining of parliamentary democracy, 
but may signal a major turning point in postwar Japanese history where 
the extreme political right is no longer taboo but now the governmental 
norm.  It may be extreme rhetoric, but the words "the return of fascism" 
are being spoken by even moderate commentators.  For a country which has 
largely refused to deal with its fascist past, this return (albiet 
probably in a different form) is not impossible.

What I am wondering is how we should think of cinema in relation to this 
turning point.  Is it merely a coincidence that a "renaissance" in 
Japanese cinema is occuring at the same time that the Japanese government 
is veering to the right?  I have already published articles on the 
nationalism of _Hana-bi_ and _Swallowtail Butterfly_ and there is the 
case of Toei's _Pride_. Can we separate the contemporary Japanese cinema 
we are watching from this clear rightward political turn?  Many complain 
that Japanese cinema has, like the society around it, essentially become 
apathetic and a-political (see Tanaka Masumi's piece in the _Nihonsei 
eiga no yomikata_ book).  There are some openly political films out there 
(mostly in the documentary world which are not showcased by foreign film 
festivals), but very few and far between.  At best, there are films 
dealing with social problems (like zainichi Koreans, foreigners in Japan, 
etc.) but rarely in the political fashion of the 1960s.  Are some 
Japanese filmmakers resisting this rightward trend in their own way?  Or, 
wittingly or unwittingly, backing it?  Just what is the place of politics 
in contemporary Japanese cinema?

Any comments?

Aaron Gerow
Yokohama National University
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