PM Yoshida's "sports, screen and sex"

[Michael Raine]

Hello Roland,

Is there a good source for reading about occupation policies such as these?
I've only seen the terms as part of a criticism of occupation or
post-occupation policy, but I haven't found a statement of the policy
itself. Also, I think Jonathan Abel and others have written about 3S in the
prewar. Speaking of Oshima ... he used a different triad (Speed, Thrill
[suriru], Sex) in when writing about Nakahira Ko in Sengo eiga: hakai to
sozo. That combination was quite common in the 1950s, I think. I've seen
various permutations of S-words used to talk about Korea in the 1980s and
even consumerism in South East Asia. In general, I think it was a shorthand
on the cultural left for how capitalism was bamboozling the people with
commodity fetishism. That's how Sasaki Ko, the "Japanese Elvis" (he's in
Yoshida's Rokudenashi and Oshima's The Sun's Burial) talks about his own
career...

Michael

Michael Raine
Assistant Professor in Japanese Cinema
The University of Chicago
mjraine at uchicago.edu


-----Original Message-----
From: Roland Domenig [mailto:roland.domenig at univie.ac.at] 
Sent: Monday, December 29, 2008 11:44 AM
To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Subject: AW: PM Yoshida's "sports, screen and sex"

The so-called "3S policy" was less advocated by the Yoshida government than
by the American occupation authorities - together with the so-called
"5D-policy" (Democratication, Disarmament, Demilitarization,
Decentralization, Disindustrialization) and the "3R policy" (revenge,
reform, revive). 
In the early 1950s, when the seiten eiga boom rocked the Japanese film
industry, the term "3S eiga" was used in different ways: on the one hand it
stood for "sentimental, sex and science", alluding to the content of the
films, on the other hand it stood for "Sukunai keihi de, sokusei de, sugoi
môke" (low budgets, instantly produced, enormous profits) hinting at the
production context. 

Roland 

________________________________________
Von: owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
[owner-KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu] im Auftrag von eigagogo at free.fr
[eigagogo at free.fr]
Gesendet: Montag, 29. Dezember 2008 13:27
An: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
Betreff: PM Yoshida's "sports, screen and sex"

Dear all,

While browsing through the informative Abe Sada wikipage, i found a mention
about PM Yoshida Shigeru's "sports, screen and sex" policy:
'... Wishing to divert public attention from politics, and criticism of the
occupying authorities, the Yoshida government openly encouraged a "3-S"
policy--
"sports, screen and sex"

As it features words 'screen & sex', i was wondering whether this policy had
an
effect on the rise of erotic-themed movies production? By the way, when was
this
policy applied  (1949 ..54?), did it interfere with the occupying
authorities
own policy (in something similar as the jidai-geki ban)?

I doubt it proved to be of any significant importance movie-wise .. but
maybe
some interesting historical facts can emerge?




Regards,

Martin