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TOKYO – Director Hirokazu Kore-eda declined an invitation from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) to celebrate his film “Shoplifters” which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival at the end of May.
Kore-eda announced his refusal in a post on his website, saying that refusing the invitation was “the right thing”. In the June 7 announcement, he also revealed that he had refused similar requests from local authorities.
“Thinking back to the past when the film industry united with ‘national interest’ and ‘national politics’, I tend to think that keeping a clear distance from government authority is the right thing to do. to do.”
Education Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi told the House of Councilors Education and Science Committee that he would like to invite Kore-eda to come to the ministry for a celebration, although he did not have knew if the manager would accept such an offer. “We are very happy and proud to have won the Palme d’Or,” said Hayashi, in response to a question from Mieko Kamimoto, member of the Democratic Constitutional Party of Japan.
Le Figaro, a French newspaper, reported that Prime Minister Shinzo Abe did not congratulate Kore-eda because of his critical stance on the current state of Japanese politics.
(Japanese original by Takuya Izawa, City News Service)
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