bunkacho plan

[Aaron Gerow]

This is certainly good news, but I can easily imagine a hundred problems. 
First, what films will they define as requiring preservation? Will pink 
films be included? Experimental films (some of which are shown at 
commercial theaters)? And who will pay for the prints that will be 
deposited? Second, anyone who knows the Film Center knows they are 
horribly underfunded and understaffed. I have colleagues there who work 
until midnight every night. Will the government pay for the much larger 
staff that is needed to handle not only such deposits, but also the 
system of making them available to the public? Remember that the Film 
Center has been made an independent administrative agency (dokuritsu 
gyosei hojin) and is now required to pay part of its own way. Frankly, I 
wonder how feasible this plan is, even if it is a sign of better 
tomorrows.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
International Student Center
Yokohama National University
79-1 Tokiwadai
Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501
JAPAN
E-mail: gerow at ynu.ac.jp
Phone: 81-45-339-3170
Fax: 81-45-339-3171