Story Categories: censorship, Documentary, Exhibition/theaters, Film, Finance, Japan, regulation, Tokyo,

   Referring to protests by a group of parliament members, led by LDP lawmaker Tomomi Inada, that the docu about the war memorial shrine, shot over a ten-year period by Chinese helmer Li Ying, was anti-Japanese, Machimura said "I don't think their actions caused the cancellations." "It's extremely unfortunate that bullying and pressure can affect freedom of expression," he added.

   Inada's group requested a special pre-release screening of the pic, which distrib Argo Pictures held on March 12. The group was upset that the Agency for Cultural Affairs had contributed $75,000 in coin to the pic's production. Last Friday Inada told reporters that the government should not have backed the pic because its "neutrality is questionable." She denied that the LDP members' objections constituted censorship.

   The docu, which was screened at the Pusan, Sundance and Berlin fests, depicts events and personalities swirling around the shrine, which honors Class A war criminals together with millions of Japanese war dead and has long been a focus of both right-wing veneration and protests by anti-war groups, including families of Asian war victims.

   Various industry groups have come out in support of Li and the pic, including the Directors Guild of Japan, the Mass Media Information and Culture Union and the Federation of Cinema and Theatrical Workers' Unions.

   Starring with the Wald 9 multiplex in the Tokyo entertainment district of Shinjuku all four Tokyo theaters set to open "Yasukuni" on April 12 have cancelled, Also, one theater in Osaka has pulled the plug, leaving only venues in the cities Sapporo, Nagoya, Hiroshima and Fukuoka still committed to screeeing the pic. "It was a decision we had to make," said Human Cinemas exhibition department manager Akio Nakamura, explaining to reporters on the decision not to screen the pic at the company's theater in Tokyo's Ginza district. "There are three screens in the (theater) building and we weren't sure we could maintain the safety of all of them. You can talk all you want about 'freedom of  expression,' but there's a limit."