JF Waste?

[Mark Roberts]

Aaron,

I'm glad to hear that your blog has been getting more hits from the  
Japan Foundation. The more exposure of this issue, the better. I  
wonder, though, if they are the people who most need to hear what you  
have to say. Some of the JF staff must be woefully aware of these  
problems.

I agree that the JF should be pressuring the rights holders, but  
again, what powers do they have to negotiate? Is the fundamental  
problem that the JF lacks the institutional conviction to play hard  
ball? E.g., we know that the rights holders demand a certain amount of  
money for screenings, actual or virtual. If the JF replies: "sorry,  
that's too expensive", do the rights holders yield and negotiate, or  
do they simply walk away from the table? If the latter, what is the JF  
going to do? Likewise with the secret catalog of films: if the JF were  
to say "we want to publish this though our library database" and the  
rights holders replied "no!" what recourse does the JF have? As you  
point out, it's a similar situation with the NFC. It seems like both  
JF and NFC are caught between the public, the research community, the  
industry, and a complacent government.

It may be that nothing short of direct government intervention is  
going to change this situation. This is my sense of the situation,  
though I admit it's a hypothesis, based upon a limited understanding.  
Perhaps this issue can also be seen in light of what is now a  
worldwide battle between media consumers and rights holders, with the  
former in a state of revolt against DRM technologies and pro-industry  
policies that are working to gate access, erode fair rights' use, etc.  
In Europe and America, especially, the industry is responding with a  
lot of money to buy lobbyists, lawyers, judges, etc. The history of  
the Japanese cinema itself seems to demonstrate that the industry  
really does not care deeply about film culture or heritage. As Bazin  
once said: "film is not an art AND an industry, but instead an  
industrial art that is likely to vanish into thin air as soon as the  
industry's profits disappear".

W.r.t. the situation in Japan, should the goal of further discussion  
be an exploration of government policy on film heritage, with  
initiatives for education and research that, in effect, force the  
rights holders to play ball with institutions like the JF and NFC?  
Which policies have worked in other countries that are more pro-active  
on this? What arguments can be made to gather support for policy  
changes?

I'm not sure what the best forum for generating discussion about this  
issue would be, or how to best frame it, but an article written in  
Japanese that tries to speak to a broader public might be good.  
Unfortunately, I have no connections with Asahi or other Japanese  
newspapers to offer. While this specifically concerns cinema, I'm  
wondering if it might reach more people if it were pitched as an issue  
of cultural heritage. Should you decide to pursue it, I'm sure you  
could write an excellent piece about this. If there's anything I could  
possibly do to help with research, co-authoring, etc., please let me  
know.

Best,

M