Director Hisayo Saika Topics Human Interest, Social Causes, Education Production MBS International Year 2022 Country Japan Running time 107 minutes Format DCP, Color
BAFICI International Film Festival, 2023, World Premiere
SYNOPSIS This film documents how the government’s destruction of Japanese textbooks, academics, and education has progressed, based on testimonies by politicians, textbook writers, textbook company employees, teachers, and other involved parties. In 1997, military comfort women were written about in all middle school history textbooks, but right-wing politicians heavily rallied against this. One long-established publisher was attacked, and it eventually went bankrupt for writing about the lawsuit of a former Korean comfort woman named Hak-sun Kim and explaining the damages inflicted by the Japanese army in detail. A former editor says that it has caused the textbook publishing companies to wither. As political pressure grows, there are even plans to rewrite the terminology of history based on the Japanese government’s point of view. Political interference in textbooks is growing.
