JF Waste?

[Aaron Gerow]

Just a quick update on the JF "scandal":

"Asazuba", the main morning show on TBS hosted by Mino Monta, just did  
a big story on the JF problem. Most of it was what I reported, but  
they did add a few things:

1) They interviewed Terawaki Ken, the former Ministry of Education  
official and member of the JF film selection board who, instead of  
defending the selection of pink films (which was actually not raised  
in the report, thank god; Terawaki is an expert on pink films, by the  
way), complained that the JF never asked them to rate films according  
to their appropriateness for showing in different countries. They were  
just asked to rate them class A to D.

2) They interviewed the former ambassador to Lebanon who made an  
important point: that cultural affairs people in the Foreign Ministry  
are the lowest of the low in the bureaucratic hierarchy and good work  
in such a position is considered irrelevant to career advancement.  
(This this reflects how much the Foreign Ministry cares about culture,  
as well as how much expertise in Japanese film is considered  
meaningless by the Japanese government.)

What concerns me most, however, is the continued media exposure of the  
JF. With the government workshop recently asking for a total  
rethinking of the JF, and with Mino Monta, one of the most popular TV  
hosts in Japan, blasting the organization, I would not be surprised if  
the Japan Foundation disappears altogether. That will probably not  
happen, but the JF as we know it now is gone for sure. This will  
likely have a significant effect on some of our projects.

Aaron Gerow
Associate Professor
Film Studies Program/East Asian Languages and Literatures
Yale University
53 Wall Street, Room 316
PO Box 208363
New Haven, CT 06520-8363
USA
Phone: 1-203-432-7082
Fax: 1-203-432-6764
e-mail: aaron.gerow at yale.edu
site: www.aarongerow.com