Japan cinemas step away from film

Five cinemas in Tokyo and Osaka have dropped plans to show the documentary "Yasukuni" beginning April 12, saying they feared for the safety of staff and patrons if they showed the film by Chinese director Li Ying.

His film addresses the question of Japanese amnesia about the nation's wartime past by examining the clashing views about Yasukuni. Many Japanese regard the 19th century Tokyo shrine as the appropriate place to pray for the country's 2.5 million war dead, whereas critics see it as a symbol of unapologetic militarism.

Both the director and the cinema owners said they had received threatening calls warning them against showing the film. Some of the theaters had been targeted by right-wing activists demonstrating in their signature black sound trucks, blasting nationalist slogans and tirades against the film at deafening volume through loudspeakers.

"The loud trucks came around the cinema and we consulted with the police, but they said it was not easy to arrest" the protesters, said Manabu Matsumoto of Humax Cinema, which runs a theater in Tokyo's tony Ginza district. "We had to give up [on showing the film] because we could not guarantee the safety of our staff."

The capitulation to intimidation has raised questions about the strength of Japan's commitment to protecting constitutional guarantees of free expression. Politicians from the main parties have been tepid in their criticism of extremist violence, even as ultranationalists have used threats of protests to shut down public conferences in recent months.

A conference on the changing role of women in Japanese society was canceled last fall after organizers were threatened by right-wing groups claiming to be protecting traditional values. And the annual gathering of Japan's teachers union, a longtime bane of ultranationalists, was canceled when a hotel chain reneged on a contract to play host to the event, citing fears of disruption for other guests.

So far, mainstream politicians have shown almost no inclination to ensure that "Yasukuni" is screened. Culture Minister Kisaburo Tokai said Tuesday that he regretted the cinema owners' decision to cancel the screenings.