9 SEPT 2016 <Temple ICAS Film Talk> Yakuza and the Constitution (Yakuza to Kenpo): Film Screening with Director Koji Hijikata

Robert Dujarric Announcement
Location
Japan
Subject Fields
Art, Art History & Visual Studies, Cultural History / Studies, Japanese History / Studies, Human Rights, Film and Film History

Date: Friday, September 9, 2016

Time:
6:00 - 7:40 p.m. Part I: Screening (film is 96 minutes)
7:40 - 7:45 p.m. Break
7:45 - 9:00 p.m. Part II: Talk and Q & A by Hijikata Koji, Director of the film (with consecutive interpretation) 

Venue: Temple University Japan Campus, Mita Hall 5F http://www.tuj.ac.jp/maps/tokyo.html

Speaker: Koji Hijikata, Director & Reporter at Tokai Television Broadcasting

Moderator: Sachiko Horiguchi, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, Temple University Japan Campus

Language: Film - Japanese with English subtitles
                  Talk - Japanese with English consecutive interpretation
RSVP: Required for Part I: Screening
Please send RSVP to icas@tuj.temple.edu if you plan to attend Part I: Screening. Please note that doors are closed and no entry will be permitted during the screening.   

Overview:
How do yakuza live their lives, and what are in their minds? In an attempt to answer these questions, a Tokai TV crew entered the office of an Osaka-based designated organized crime syndicate, Nidaime Higashi-gumi Nidaime Seiyukai, and followed them for 100 days. The Seiyukai chairman had served over 20 years in prison for his alleged involvement in a 1985 murder case. This case is claimed to have served as the impetus for the enactment of the 1992 Organized Crime Countermeasures Law, a legal change that fundamentally reconfigured the relation between the yakuza and the police, and has brought profound changes to the structure of organized crime in Japan. Since the implementation of these organized crime exclusionary laws, yakuza membership has seen a serious decline in number, down to under 60,000, with 30,000 members leaving in the last three years.

Yakuza and the Constitution captures the backgrounds of Seiyukai members and their possible engagement with shinogi (yakuza’s fundraising activities), an ojiki (uncle figure) member treating a new member like his son, as well as a member’s arrest followed by a police raid. The chairman is depicted making claims about human rights violations against yakuza and their families. He asserts that yakuza cannot make bank accounts and have problems paying their children’s school lunch fees, but the majority of lawyers won’t give a hand to them.

This groundbreaking documentary sheds light on issues of human rights and social exclusion, authority and violence, and the powerful and the powerless, by unveiling the everyday realities of those living at the margins of Japanese society.

The film has drawn large crowds to theaters all over Japan this year, and Temple University Japan is proud to host its English premiere. After the screening, film director Koji Hijikata will share stories behind the camera, to be followed by a Q&A and discussion with the audience.

Yakuza and the Constitution was produced and is distributed by Tokai Television Broadcasting Co, Ltd. in association with Tofoo, Llc. Its website is at http://www.893-kenpou.com/

Speaker:
Koji Hijikata is currently director and reporter in the news division at Tokai Television Broadcasting, a Nagoya-based TV station affiliated with Fuji Television Network. He joined Tokai Television Broadcasting after graduating from Sophia University in Tokyo with BA in English Literature. He worked in production teams of variety and informational shows before transferring to the news division. He directed his debut documentary Homeless Rijicho: Taigaku-kyuji Saisei-keikaku (Homeless Director: High School Baseball Dropouts’ Road to Recovery) in 2014, and has won several awards for public campaign commercials featuring issues in reporting the third anniversary of the 3.11 disaster (2014) and remembering & speculating the war (2015).
 

 

 

Contact Information
Robert Dujarric, Director
Kyle Cleveland, Associate Director
Eriko Kawaguchi, Senior Coordinator

Institute of Contemporary Asian Studies
Temple University, Japan Campus
 
Contact Email
icas@tuj.temple.edu