BLACK BOX DIARIES

Groundbreaking Documentary Is a Must-see

Venue(s): Uplink Kichijoji
From March 6, 2026 - March 12, 2026 except March 7: Visit theater site for details.
Language: Japanese/English with English/Japanese subtitles
Theater website: joji.uplink.co.jp/
Theater website: joji.uplink.co.jp/map
Theater website: joji.uplink.co.jp/movie/2026/30773
Trailer: https://bit.ly/4794eha
Tariff: Visit theater site for details.
Advance tickets: Visit theater site for details.
Talk event: Visit theater site for details.
Director: Shiori Ito (伊藤詩織)
Duration: 102 min

If you have not yet experienced journalist-filmmaker Shiori Ito’s Oscar-nominated Black Box Diaries, do not miss the opportunity to see it with English subtitles. In the controversial-in-Japan-only work, Ito turns the camera on her own fight for justice, creating a deeply personal documentary that chronicles her years-long investigation into the sexual assault she publicly accused a prominent television journalist of committing, exposing herself to unrelenting public scrutiny and vilification.

The film begins in 2017, shortly after Ito took the extraordinary step of holding a press conference and revealing both her own name and that of the accused—an act almost unheard of in Japan, where survivors of sexual violence rarely speak publicly. Using a mosaic of smartphone recordings, personal video diaries, interviews, and investigative material gathered over more than seven years, Ito documents the emotional and legal battle that followed.

As the case unfolds, Black Box Diaries exposes troubling questions surrounding police procedure, political pressure, and the treatment of sexual assault survivors within Japanese society. The film traces Ito’s pursuit of answers after an arrest warrant was reportedly issued for the prominent journalist and then abruptly halted (presumably because of his close relationship with then-PM Shinjo Abe, whose biography he wrote), forcing her to continue the fight through the civil court and public advocacy. Her difficult and often solitary fight helped lead to the 2023 revision of Japan's antiquated law on sexual offenses, making non-consensual sexual acts legally punishable in line with other countries. The film also contributed to a broader cultural shift, bringing new attention to sexual assault and gender-based violence in Japan.

Produced by Star Sands and completed as an international co-production with the UK and US, the film premiered to acclaim at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and went on to screen at more than 50 festivals worldwide, winning multiple major awards. It received the Emerging Filmmaker Award at the IDA Documentary Awards, the prestigious Peabody Award, and made history as the first feature documentary by a Japanese director nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Academy Awards.

But after a Japan-based effort to reduce the film's narrative to a dispute over the use of footage obtained without explicit consent, including surveillance video from the hotel in which the rape took place and other important proof. To address Japanese privacy concerns, Ito made several adjustments for the film’s long-delayed Japanese theatrical release.

A searing account of resilience, Black Box Diaries captures the personal cost of speaking out—and the societal structures that silence survivors.

Uplink Kichijoji