A civilizational critique linking the film Akunin, the author’s Osaka experiences, and structural evils in society. Argues that if artists truly wish to reform society, they must act to turn Kaji Nobuyuki’s thesis into real policy.

2019-01-03

We must collectively appeal to the government to realize Professor Kaji’s all-or-nothing thesis as actual national policy.
I am a person who almost never watches Japanese films, except for Otoko wa Tsurai yo and Tsuribaka Nisshi.
Last night, because it was the New Year, I thought it might be acceptable to delay going to bed just a little, and I ended up watching part of a film called Akunin.
I remembered fragments of it being shown on TV after winning awards, and the actress Hikari Mitsushima in the opening episode seemed perfectly cast.
But it was truly an unpleasant film…then I checked who the director was and saw a Korean name…indeed, that explained everything.
I do not know whether it was adapted from a novel, but it is exactly the sort of subject that would eagerly be seized upon…perfect for proclaiming to the world “this is Japan.”
In any case, the film is filled with the evils that inhabit Japan…
In July 2010, the land that held the key to Osaka’s revival…Osaka, which in the era of Toyotomi Hideyoshi could be called the world’s greatest commercial city, and which remains one of the world’s leading commercial cities…after the collapse of the bubble so named by the media, (1) land prices declined as dramatically as they had once rivaled Tokyo, and (2) from the era of Governor Kuroda of the Communist Party to that of Governor Yokoyama Knock…
In a sense, Osaka bore elements that created a gap with Tokyo as a result of acting under a pseudo-anti-authority posture, much like a microcosm of Japan dominated by the Asahi Shimbun…
It goes without saying that this was a major negative for Japan…The confusion surrounding the Umeda North Yard, which could be called land left by the gods to save Osaka’s great decline…
Only my readers know that at the time (2009–2010), the course of events surrounding North Yard made me feel for several days as if choosing Osaka as the stage of my life had been a grave mistake, to the point that I even lost the will to work.
Saying “this is absurd,” I went to the Kansai Economic Federation without an appointment to correct the errors of Hiroshi Shimozuma, who, soon after becoming chairman, had proposed stopping the second phase of sales and turning the land into a green park—an idea of unparalleled foolishness and evil.
He was a prodigy produced by Hokkaido…As a prodigy from Miyagi Prefecture myself, I went to correct his mistake.
The person who appeared was a young secretary he had brought from Sumitomo Metal—so to speak, my junior—who made me speak for about an hour, saying he would definitely convey my message to Shimozuma.
The fact that my message certainly reached him was proven by the subsequent toning down of his naïve, superficial moralistic statements.
The person who had beguiled this accomplished elite elder was a woman described by an executive of Takenaka Corporation as “a killer of old men”…
So I went to the Keizai Doyukai where she belonged…Unfortunately she was absent, but I left a strong message that my views must be conveyed.
This was before August four years earlier…I had long been a reader of the Asahi Shimbun.
When I later read an article in SAPIO by Kenichi Ohmae referring to the construction history of the Festival Tower built by Asahi Shimbun as a corporate bet, I instantly realized that the hidden force that had delayed and confused the North Yard project was the Asahi Shimbun.
Unbelievably, that very Asahi Shimbun—truly what could be called real evil—
had written a feature that drained my will to work for several days and made me feel choosing Osaka as my life’s stage was a failure.
I even sent our executive to deliver detailed accounts of how I visited Keidanren, Doyukai, and Osaka City Hall to correct their errors to the Asahi reporter in charge, Tagaya…
An utterly foolish act.
As already noted, I had no choice but to step forward publicly thereafter…
Thus in Osaka (evil exists everywhere—in Japan, in the world—while China and the Korean Peninsula have long been nations formed of evil, as I have repeatedly stated)…perhaps because many from the Korean Peninsula remained in Japan after the war despite GHQ repatriation orders…there were many such evils.
To write the real truth requires a state of mind like that of Jesus Christ, or as the great Japanese figure Myōe said, only with a mind like a clear mirror and still water.
But from the perspective of the evils that lurked in Osaka, such a stance was the perfect target—just as Japan itself has long been for China and the Korean Peninsula.
Returning to the film mentioned at the beginning: the evils depicted in that film may be a convenient livelihood for the author and all involved…
Recently, a youth connected to Osaka committed a car-ramming attack in Harajuku…
I wish to say this to all involved in that film—author, director, actors.
If you truly believe such evils exist in Japan and wish to correct them from your hearts, then you must act together to make Professor Kaji’s all-or-nothing thesis into real policy.
If you truly wish to eliminate evil from Japan and from this world.
To be continued.