Black Box Diaries: Shiori Itō’s Oscar-Nominated Documentary Sparks Global Conversations

Shiori Itō is a journalist who won rave accolades at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival for her documentary film Black Box Diaries. The documentary covers the journalist’s journey of facing sexual assault and its subsequent investigation case in Japan.

Black Box Diaries follows Shiori Itō’s journey as she rehashes her sexual assault case. She was sexually abused by Noriyuki Yamaguchi, who was the Washington D.C. Bureau chief of the Tokyo Broadcasting System. He was also well-acquainted with the late Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

The incident dates back to 2015 when Shiori Itō was an intern at Thomas Reuters. She was invited to a business get-together, and after that event, Yamaguchi took an inebriated Itō to his hotel, The Sheraton in Tokyo, and allegedly sexually assaulted her. The police were reluctant to investigate the case, citing age-old laws in Japan that demand physical evidence in such assault cases.

She took the matter into her own hands and requested the hotel share the CCTV footage to support her claim. The hotel, which was reluctant at first owing to the privacy of its clientele, eventually shared the footage but not before demanding USD 4,000 to blur the faces of other individuals in it.

The documentary has been released in 58 countries globally, in addition to its US distribution by MTV Documentary Films. It is also nominated in the BAFTAs for Best Documentary category and the 97th Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature Film category. However, the film is yet to see the light of the day in its home country.

Two French organizations have taken up the cause to bring the documentary to Japan by starting a petition on Change.org. At this writing, the petition has over 5,000 to help bring Shiori Itō’s story home.

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