Ito Shiori has been fighting for justice since she accused journalist Yamaguchi Noriyuki of rape in 2015. Her latest chapter is a documentary on her struggle that’s receiving worldwide acclaim – including an Oscar shortlisting. However, it’s also coming under fire from her former attorney for using “unauthorized” footage.
Black Box Diaries, directed by Ito Shiori, shows her investigating her own assault. It’s full of damning recordings of her conversations with police and prosecutors, who constantly dissuaded her from lodging a case against Yamaguchi.
Ito says powerful figures such as the head of Japan’s police agency ordered a halt into her rape investigation. She and her allies contend that Yamaguchi leveraged his connections, such as his close friendship with then-Prime Minister Abe Shinzo, to end the case.
At the time of Ito’s assault, Japan had still not had its “#MeToo moment.” Many authorities refused to take sexual assault cases seriously. Some critics labeled Japan a “rape paradise” after one case in which a father was found not guilty of raping his 12-year-old daughter because the judge refused to believe the victim.
Ito’s refusal to back down changed that. Despite not receiving a criminal court victory, she sued Yamaguchi for civil damages. She won her case in a verdict that an appeals court upheld a year later.
Her fight brought sexual assault into the spotlight in Japan and put pressure on authorities to pursue cases more vigorously. It brought attention to issues such as public molestation on trains (痴漢; chikan), a crime that often goes unreported because victims believe police are more concerned with protecting the “reputation” of the perpetrator.
Shiori also made headway against online bullying. She successfully sued a right-wing manga artist who accused Shiori of lobbing false rape accusations after failing to “sleep her way to success.” She also successfully sued right-wing bigot (and frequent UJ object of contempt) Sugita Mio for liking one of those tweets.
Academy award nom and criticism from a former attorney
Ito’s documentary was selected to screen at numerous worldwide film festivals, including Sundance and South by Southwest. It won the Top 5 Documentaries Award from the National Board of Review and the Special Jury Award at the San Francisco International Film Festival.
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On December 18th, the documentary added another feather to its cap. It finds itself on the shortlist for the Academy Award’s Best Documentary Film. The film is one of 15 films selected from the 169 films that were eligible this year.
However, Ito’s also receiving pointed criticism from a former ally. Her former attorney, Nishihiro Yoko, says that Black Box Diaries contains footage that shouldn’t be utilized outside a courtroom. Most notably, Nishihiro says the movie used hotel footage showing Ito drunk and incapacitated. The hotel, Nishiiro says, only gave them that footage on the condition it would only be used in court.
Asked to respond to Nishihiro’s allegations, Ito told Huffington Post Japan that the movie doesn’t use the footage in question but a re-enactment created with CGI.
“We tried to negotiate with the hotel,” she says, “but couldn’t get permission to use the [original] footage.” She says, however, that they left in a clip of Yamaguchi embracing her and leading her into the hotel in order not to “distort the truth” of what happened.
Ito also says she thinks sharing nonconsensual recordings of herself with police officers is fair game. Technically, such recordings are illegal under Japanese law.
“It’s extremely important to look at how police exercise their power in deciding who to arrest.”
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