Journalist turns camera on herself in dogged crusade to find justice after rape

In 2017, an aspiring young journalist found herself making headlines all across Japan.

Shiori Itō didn't get to write the headlines, though. Instead, she became the subject of a landmark case in Japan following her public allegation of rape.

Ito's accusation stunned the public. Japanese culture rarely rewards people for speaking out of turn, and after doing so, Itō faced an overwhelming amount of death threats, cyberbullying and hate mail.

In Japan, where only 4% of victims report their cases to police and a year before the #MeToo movement forever changed public conversation of assault and consent around the globe, Ito's dogged pursuit of the truth was nearly impossible comprehend, even by members of her family.

Two years earlier and fresh out of journalism school in New York, Itō had returned to Japan to pursue her career. She connected with a renowned veteran journalist in hopes of landing a job in an influential newsroom. The two met for a dinner meeting, but what came after, Ito can't say.

Security footage shows Noriyuki Yamaguchi and Ito return to his hotel following that dinner. The CCTV video shows Yamaguchi drag an intoxicated Itō from the backseat and prop her up as he leads her into the hotel.

Itō would spend the better part of the next decade fighting in court, pursuing justice against Yamaguchi, a close friend and biographer of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Throughout that time, she documented through audio and video recordings, that process. The collection of hundreds of hours of recordings would eventually result in a gripping documentary tracking Ito's own investigation in the face of rigid judicial and societal systems.

"Black Box Diaries," directed by Itō, is an emotional first-person catalogue of her fight to expose one of the most well-connected men in the country. It's in theaters now in New York City.

The following are edited excerpts from our conversation with journalist, author and documentary filmmaker Shiori Itō.

There were a lot of moments in the movie that were so overwhelming. In one moment, you have this interaction with some women on the street, and you say something close to 'I'm just going to be seen as this woman who was raped or this survivor.' How do you see yourself today?

To complete editing, it took such a long time, it took four years. It was just, you know, diving into my old diaries and I start writing an essay, with all the short stories. The experience with going back to the diaries and the question you just throw out to me, because I didn't no longer knew who I was.

I just published a book a couple of years ago already in Japan. It's called "Swim Naked." I named it because there's a beautiful island in Japan between Honshu Island in Okinawa, called Yakushima Island, and it's very volcanic. And in Japan, nudity is like, no, no, no. It's always segregated because men and women.

But it's these places in nature, it's right next to ocean, beach, and I went there at nighttime or while I was doing all the editing and I needed to have some good time off. So I went there and I just realized I always had on my bucket list that I always wanted to do skinny dipping.

I just went into the water, swam and realized when you swim in dark, you don't always [know] up and down. And at that moment I felt like, um, it doesn't matter, I'm just breathing creature. And that moment, I realize I have no control. Whatever people call me, no control. At that moment I felt like, okay, good. I also don't know how to describe myself, but that moment I just feel like I'm just breathing creature and that's who I am today. I'm still breathing.

I'm really fascinated by this kind of shift in journalism in the past few years where more and more journalists, from my perspective, kind of become so much more ingrained in the reporting in the story. I think one of the most clear-cut examples I can think of is Bisan, who now is synonymous with the war reporting over in Gaza. For very long time, journalism is supposed to kind of be one thing and you're supposed to be neutral. Obviously in your case, you became the story. Do you see that change as well?

It was, in one sense, documenting what was going around me. It helped me as a journalist because I documented, I questioned and I had a mask to wear so I can distance myself. But when it comes to film, I struggle because everything I learned about journalism, I was breaking it.

And in the beginning I even thought about interviewing Yamaguchi, you know, the guy I was accusing of because I felt like it has to be impartial. But then at some point, I just had to embrace myself. No, no, no. This is film. I'm crossing the line as a journalist. But this is the film. And it's okay to tell one-sided it's story.

But the more I thought about it, looking back on what I have covered, I'm always choosing the topic, who to talk, which quote to use. And so there's bias in the end. And of course you want to distance and that's the way we do. Of course we try our best, but it's okay to show that side and so that I think I start accepting more flexibility in journalism.

And before I felt like another topic. But, you know, journalism and activism shouldn't coexist. But again, choosing reporting what to report, what to say is, is a form of activism? So now, if I was so scared to sound like this as a journalist, but now I think, yeah, if I'm talking about sexual violence I'm talking about, um, gender issue and yeah, if that's, you know, again, when people call me activist, I have no control over it.

So I think I became more flexible and believe in different forms of storytelling.

I'm really curious about the editing process for this film, because there's a lot of choices that felt different and exciting and so personal. Obviously, this is a very serious and heavy topic, but it felt incredibly vulnerable for what you chose to show. But I feel like I already have such a good sense of who you are. There are moments where you're laughing, you're enjoying yourself and you're bonding with your friends. I'm curious about what you and the editor chose to put in there and what those conversations were like.

First of all, as a survivor, as a victim, starting from going to the police, I heard many times like, you're not lying enough, you're not upset enough, so we can't really believe you. And when I went public as well, I was told that I need to wear a certain thing.

I just want to show that life is everything, up and down. So just, you know, forget about the stereotyping of we don't just cry always, even if the shit thing happens. So I want to include everything because that's important as a point of view as a survivor. There are so many films that deal with sexual violence and highlighting this, you know, important issue, but it's always directed by someone else.

I read so many memoirs, but I never really encountered that was directed by the person as a survivor. For me it was important to show and let audience where my shoes and sometimes I made certain choices, which maybe I don't choose today.

I carefully not put my voice from today. Of course, editing is the way, but I couldn't voiceover it or I couldn't do because I think differently from the women I'm seeing, even if it's myself. So that's why we decided to go back to my diaries, because that's the most relevant part. The new part that we put in was the part that I went to film with my little camera, remembering where I was at when I was recording the audio, having the phone call, writing to the diary, what I was seeing and where it was. I start remembering all this journey and start filming like point of view shot. So that's the only like language from today that I put.

The other part was I didn't want to put myself or audience traumatized with anything visual. You don't have to have a visually violated scene. I didn't want to do that, but I think the only part maybe was the CCTV footage. I wanted to keep that.

I didn't want to put much detail of what happened in the beginning because I didn't want to plant in people's mind, always thinking about, 'oh, this happened to her.' For me, rape wasn't the focus. It was focus of what happened after. So I decided to put the details toward the end when they kind of also start get to know the character.

It's funny because sometimes I had to try to treat myself as a character, when I think about, 'yeah, well it's okay to put in emotion wise.' Every time I try to self-censor, 'like this is too much, it's not okay,' but I had to come back and think if I'm making someone else's documentary what would I do.

MeToo really blew up here in the United States while you had this journey in Japan. You were dealing with Japan's law and how hard it is, how rare it is, for female survivors to come forward. How did you feel dealing with all of this, trying to proceed through the court and find justice while this big in the midst of this big societal movement?

Yeah, I went public about a year before the MeToo movement happened. And the time MeToo movement broke out, it was the time when I published my book. It's a that touched in the film and as we have the big scene in a film, the first email I received was from this woman, Japanese women, saying how shameful she is towards me and feeling towards me. She said, even though what happened to you is true, you should never talk about it. I just felt how different the reaction is when in American so many women were speaking up and you know, showing solidarity.

And she said, even though you know what happened to you, it's true. You should never talk about it. So I just felt like I'm how different reaction is when America many women people were speaking up and you know, showing solidarity. It wasn't really the case in Japan. Now we have it slowly, but that was really shocking that you can't really choose where you're from and where you live and that felt really unfair.

But at the same time, knowing there are space, community, people out there that would stand for you or show solidarity. That really saved me. It never really became a movement in Japan. But media start coming here, you know, in Hollywood, New Yorkk. We start hearing more stories and that really helped many other people start speaking as well, I think, and also my family to understand why their little crazy daughter decided to speak.

They didn't understand me before MeToo happened, so I think that really helped in many ways. But, I think the most helpful part for me personally was knowing even I speak and I won't be able to live in Japan anymore, there is another place, there is another city, there's another community there are whole different friends and people that I can meet and I can share my values with. And that was the really most important things to realize, that it's not just Japan that I have to survive.

Nearing ten years later, how has all of this changed? How do you look at your work and what you want to focus on, and what remains important to you?

I just feel that I, I really do like now making a film. I like the slower storytelling, slower journalism, so documentary is an amazing format. And I get to spend some time with the character and not just highlighting the issue, but looking at the issues through their life.

I just love what I do making, you know, making documentary films. But yeah, ten years ago I always dream about, you know, doing all the coverage about stories and the newsroom and all the excitement. But once I experienced that, it's amazing, necessary, but I feel like it's always forgotten, consumed. But coming forward and talking about my own experience, it also helped me to see the other side of camera, how is it to be questioned about sometimes something you don't want to talk about?

I think for me it's going to be more of filmmaking. Even all this thing happened, I'm very proud of myself coming back this way.