Black Box Diaries | Jingmei Junior High School
Films screened
Black Box Diaries
In March 2015 Shiori Itō, an ambitious young journalist, was raped by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a senior figure with considerable influence in politics and the media. As the global #MeToo movement gathered force and attitudes towards victims began to shift elsewhere, Itō still faced censure and scrutiny from every direction — over what she wore at her press conference, over the substance of her claims, over accusations with no basis. The pressure nearly broke her.
Knowing that silence would be the easier choice, she decided to fight on against Japan's outdated and conservative law and opinion on sexual violence, beginning a long investigation. Interviewing the taxi driver who drove them that night, the hotel doorman, the officers handling the case, Itō re-investigated as a journalist writing in the third person, documenting the whole process as a complete report and then as this film. Her actions were not only an attempt to heal her own injury but a new page for women in Japan who choose to speak.