LETTER FROM TOKYO
The Japanese series Shinbun Kisha (The Journalist), broadcast on Netflix since January 13 and which appears in second position of the most watched series on the platform, questions the functioning of the Japanese press in a democracy gripped by pressure from the powerful, who benefit from real impunity despite repeated scandals.
Signed by director Michihito Fujii, the six episodes recount the investigation – against the advice of its leaders and at the cost of violent attacks on social networks – led by Anna Matsuda (played by Ryoko Yonekura), reporter for the daily Touto Shimbun, on a document manipulation scandal of a regional office of the Ministry of Finance.
This tampering aims to hide the links between the Prime Minister and an entrepreneur who was able to acquire public land at a derisory price thanks to the intervention of the head of government. The scandal drives one of the civil servants to suicide, forced by his superiors to falsify the documents.
Influence peddling case
The series is a new version of a novel by Isoko Mochizuki. Assigned to the Prime Minister’s Office, this daily journalist Tokyo Shimbun is renowned for its incisive questions and its criticisms, which have earned it the hostility of its colleagues in the other Japanese media, which are much more reverent towards power. In 2019, filmmaker Michihito Fujii had already released a feature film (awarded the prize for best film at the Japan Academy Awards) based on the book.
In the series, and despite the production’s warning that “this work does not reflect reality”, the case described relates in a thinly disguised manner the Moritomo scandal (named after a private education company). The influence peddling case, which broke in 2017 and which Isoko Mochizuki has written about extensively, largely involved then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie. In this case, too, a civil servant had taken his own life.
Unlike the film, Michihito Fujii wanted in the series emphasize the importance of “voice of the voiceless”, especially those of young people, which journalists should, according to him, echo. “In my film, there was a distance between the spectator and the world where journalists and bureaucrats clash. I wanted to remove this gap so that people really feel concerned. »
Press close to power
To achieve this, the director introduced a new character, Ryo Kinoshita (played by Ryusei Yokohama), a student who delivers newspapers as an odd job. Totally disinterested in the news at the start of the series, he symbolizes the sluggishness of a Japanese society which hardly votes – the abstention rate in the October 2021 legislative elections reached 44%, a second historic record – and remains misinformed by media that evade politically sensitive topics and social networks where misinformation reigns.
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