22 Japanese Theaters Plan to Screen “The Cove”
After weeks of international media coverage that implied that pressure from right-wing groups in Japan was “censoring” the Japanese release of “The Cove,” it has been announced that quite a few theaters plan to go ahead and screen the film. This clip from TBS news puts the number at 22 theaters:
The clip shows some footage of right wing sound trucks protesting in front of a theater in Yokohama that will be screening the documentary. The narrator notes that the protest groups “claim to be” political organizations (「政治結社」を名乗る団体).
Unplugged Inc. said the film would be shown at six movie theatres from July 3 in major Japanese cities including Tokyo, with 16 other cinemas following suit.
It will be the first commercial screenings of the film at Japanese movie theatres, though the distributor has already carried out a one-time show at promotion events and an online screening.
“We will consider measures to deal with expected protests and try to avoid putting strain on the theatres,” Unplugged representative Takeshi Kato said.
The Yomiuri, Japan’s biggest newspaper, ran an editorial denouncing the right wing protesters. The Mainichi, the Asahi, and other papers have taken similar stances. The new theaters that have decided to screen the film in Tokyo may be doing so out of a desire to promote freedom of expression, but I’m guessing that the large amount of Japanese media coverage about the film has also convinced some of them that a lot of people will want to buy tickets to the film after reading about the controversy in newspapers.
The New York Times, which had described the situation surrounding the Japanese release of “The Cove” as a “stark example as well of how public debate on topics deemed delicate here can be easily muffled by a small minority,” has now run a much smaller article noting the new development.
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