Interview with the director of nonfiction film covering him, can Senator Ogawa become a representative of the CDP?

A heated debate over a movie…!

Kagawa’s 1st district has been said to be one of the hottest districts in the 2021 House of Representatives election.

One of the factors that boosted the election campaign was the documentary film “Why You Can’t Be Prime Minister” (a.k.a. “Why You”) directed by Arata Oshima, in which Junya Ogawa was the subject and main character.

This is because Takuya Hirai, his rival in the same constituency and former Minister of State for Digital Affairs, criticized “Why You Can’t Be Prime Minister” during his campaign, saying that it was a “PR film” and “If that’s a campaign, then all the Diet members in Japan will start making films,” and launched a negative campaign against Ogawa. Oshima responded on Twitter, and an “off-the-record brawl” ensued.

Incidentally, an article in the Shikoku Shimbun (October 6) titled “Prefectural Board of Education apologizes for ‘inappropriate’ screening of film starring Ogawa in world history class for third-year high school students,” quotes Oshima as saying, “Regarding the film, the director says, ‘As a result, the film raised Mr. Ogawa’s profile.

This is very similar to a sentence in an article in Friday Digital (published on September 2), which interviewed Director Oshima about “Kagawa Ward 1,” the sequel to “Why You,” “Why You,” Why Did New Director Oshima Start Shooting a ‘Sequel’ Now? The Shikoku Shimbun did not interview Oshima himself, nor did it mention our website.

Moreover, Mr. Hirai said in response to Oshima’s interview, “I haven’t seen the film. I haven’t seen the movie, but it’s a very catchy title, isn’t it?

What was going on in Kagawa’s 1st district? What was going on in Kagawa’s 1st district? How did Director Oshima, who has been covering the election campaign there, view the results? We asked him about it again.

“I knew that Mr. Ogawa would win. I knew he would win. However, the appearance of the Japan Restoration Association’s candidate (Ms. Junko Machikawa) made the Ogawa camp a little nervous, and when it was reported that Ms. Ogawa had negotiated with the Restoration Association’s candidate to withdraw her candidacy, I thought the wind might be blowing a little harder.

On the other hand, interviews with the Hirai campaign became salty and individual interviews were no longer possible. Even so, I filmed the speeches that were held in open spaces, such as on the day of the announcement. I was amazed when I saw how many people, including people in black suits, who were clearly a different type from those who came to the Ogawa campaign, gathered in the hall to support Prime Minister Kishida’s speech.

However, there was a sense that the fervor in the Ogawa camp was very high, especially in the last days of the campaign. On the last day of the campaign, the number of people gathered was unparalleled compared to four years ago, and when the microphones were closed at 8:00 p.m., the atmosphere was like a festival. I thought that Ogawa-san would win because the crowd was so excited. However, I was surprised that he won at 20:00, so-called ‘zero strike.

In the evening of that day, I was told by a friend of mine from the local media that “it might be surprisingly early (for the winner to be announced),” and an NHK announcer was setting up an interview, a scene I had not seen four years ago. However, four years ago, it took until past 1:00 a.m., and the cameramen of the Oshima group were prepared to capture the moment of the decision by keeping water down during the day so that they would not have to go to the bathroom.

“When we were talking about whether we should be prepared for the top of the mountain (midnight) this time as well, we were told that the show might come out at 21:00 or 22:00, and we were like, ‘Really?

I was like, “Really?” Then, unexpectedly, I was confirmed as the winner at 20:00, and in the end, there was a difference of almost 20,000 votes. Last time, I lost by 2,183 votes, and I knew I would win this time, but I didn’t expect the difference to be this big. Moreover, I was surprised to see that even in the islands, where the opposition parties have always been weak, we won completely.

I wonder if Hirai’s loss was due to the movie…

By the way, when Director Oshima interviewed Mr. Hirai in Kagawa’s 1st district, he met him head on and even showed some composure, but at what point did he and his camp start to become “salty”?

“I interviewed Mr. Hirai on August 24. In other words, it was a week before the establishment of the Digital Agency, and former Prime Minister Kan had not yet quit, so Mr. Hirai was at the peak of his career. So, on my way home from the interview, I asked his secretary if I could be included in the press conference of the Digital Agency, and he made some arrangements for me, so I was able to cover the launch of the Digital Agency on September 1. I felt that this was a kind of leeway, or rather a mature attitude.

But then Prime Minister Kishida came into office on October 4, and Mr. Hirai was no longer the Minister of Digital Affairs, having been there for only about a month. Moreover, Mr. Hirai is a member of the Kishida faction, and was the first one to express support for Mr. Kishida during the presidential election.

In fact, according to an exit poll that appeared in the Kagawa prefecture edition of the Asahi Shimbun, Mr. Ogawa eats up about 26% of the LDP supporters and about 37% of the Komeito supporters. The fact that he was eaten up by more than 20% to 30% of the supporters of the LDP and the New Komeito suggests that Mr. Hirai’s series of news reports were disliked, especially by the female segment.

In my opinion, Mr. Hirai lost not because of the movie, but because of his own scandal. No, more than the movie or the scandal, I think the biggest factor was the trust that Mr. Ogawa had built up with the voters.

After he was removed from the post of minister, the Hirai campaign began to show a tense atmosphere, saying that they could not respond to individual requests for interviews, and gradually began to ask, “Why are you filming this? The response gradually became, “Why are you filming us? Furthermore, their strategy began to change.

“Listening to Mr. Hirai’s speeches, in the first half of the campaign, his two main points were, first, that he had done a good job with digital media, and second, whether it was okay to be the “Constitutional Communist Party.

However, after the Shikoku Shimbun (October 21) reported that Ogawa was ahead, and other newspapers also reported that Ogawa was slightly ahead, on October 24, when I was giving a speech in front of the station in the downtown area of Kawaramachi, I suddenly began to criticize him, calling him a “PR film” in connection with movies.

I was also surprised, and since I happened to be filming the event, after the speech was over, I said, “Mr. Hirai!　I said to him, “Mr. Hirai! You can’t call it a PR film. Of course, Mr. Hirai left without saying a word, but he continued to criticize the film in the closed hall and posted it on Twitter.

When Prime Minister Kishida came to Kagawa to support the film, it was on the 28th and I was in the hall, so I asked for an interview at the press desk, but the person in charge asked me to leave. When I asked him why, he just said, ‘Films are not news reports,’ and that was the last time I interviewed Mr. Hirai’s side.

On Mr. Ogawa’s side, the film led to the production of many books related to the film, the creation of a social networking team, celebrities and other well-known people voicing their support one after another, and many volunteers from outside the prefecture. The gathering of disinterested supporters must have been like a festival.

On the other hand, Mr. Hirai, who has a powerful base, signboard, and bag, said he had not seen the film and was ready to praise the title, but in the middle of the film, he exposed obvious contradictions and blatantly criticized the film, and then lost. The contrast between the two is so striking that one can’t help but feel a sense of allegorical melancholy.

I don’t know how the representative election will go…

By the way, as soon as the lower house election was over, Yukio Edano announced his resignation as the representative of the CDP, taking responsibility for the fact that the party had failed to reach its goal before the announcement. Ogawa, therefore, was quick to express his desire to run for representative. Given his overwhelming victory in the lower house election, is that still a possibility for ……?

“No, I don’t know. When Mr. Ogawa initially said that he would run for the presidency, it was after he had completed his term of office, but Mr. Edano announced his resignation two days after the election, so this development is amazing.

Besides, I think there are a lot of dynamics within the party, so I don’t know how the representative election will go. Also, there is no doubt that the more well-known you become and the more steps you take, the more criticism you will receive, so I think the only thing you can do is to talk about your beliefs and policies.

The results of the CDP primary election will serve as the epilogue to the film, which will be released on December 24. Will Director Oshima continue to film Mr. Ogawa in the future?

“It’s hard to say yet. I didn’t expect “Why Are You” to attract this kind of attention, and since the subject was Mr. Ogawa and his surroundings, I didn’t have to worry that much about it, but for “Kagawa’s 1st District,” I decided to cover Mr. Hirai’s side as well, and I felt some difficulty in doing so.

18 In the 18 years we have known each other, I have felt a deep friendship with Mr. Ogawa. However, to borrow Mr. Ogawa’s expression, “Everything is 51-49,” I think that while I was making the film, Mr. Ogawa was 51 as a subject for me and 49 as a friend. There were difficulties and hardships in that. The first thing I need to do now is to figure out how to edit “Kagawa Ward 1. I’ll think about the future after that.

Born in Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture in 1969, Arata Oshima joined Fuji Television after graduating from Waseda University in 1995. After graduating from Waseda University in 1995, he joined Fuji Television Network, where he worked as the director of “NONFIX” and “The Nonfiction”, etc. In 1999, he left Fuji Television Network and became a freelance filmmaker. In 2016, he directed “The Life of Sion Sono”. In 2016, he directed “The Life of Sono Sion” and produced “Blur, Please. (2018/The Bunka-Cho Film Awards, Grand Prize for Cultural and Documentary Films).