The Cove

[Mark Roberts]

On Jun 4, 2010, at 11:50 PM, <drainer at mpinet.net> <drainer at mpinet.net>  
wrote:

> It's not a simple as that; they have agreements with police in most  
> cases. I am not sure if there is a comparable example in other  
> countries, as I can't think of other organizations that ride the  
> coattails of the mafia. They're in the business of extortion and  
> they're successful at it. Very few people tend to go against their  
> "demands," whether due to the nuisance or just being scared. In any  
> case, it's not as simple as "making a stand," the group's whole  
> existence should be enough to compel someone to write about  
> comparative politics, though we already know Japan is not a democracy.

If their goal is to prevent a run of the film in Tokyo, then the far- 
right weren't very successful the last time they made a big stink  
about an "anti-Japanese" film. The same sort of thing happened with  
Ying Li's "Yasukuni" and eventually it was sorted. The scandal, such  
as it was, actually seemed to help the theaters.

In that case, the controversy was somewhat deeper, because "Yasukuni"  
was produced with funding from Bunkacho, so the question of soft  
censorship and the involvement of the state was more vexed. There were  
similar anonymous threats to theaters, and their corporate owners got  
cold feet. But once some smaller independent theaters stepped up to go  
forward with screenings, nobody ever made good on the original  
threats. When the screenings happened, there were police outside the  
building and security inside the theater, stationed up by the screen  
to watch the audience. As far as I heard, there was never any trouble.

If nobody takes a stand, nothing ever changes.

M