The Heisei era is over: Japanese cinema has portrayed it

About 30 years ago, on January 8, 1989, Emperor Akihito (1933-) acceded to the imperial throne of Japan, inaugurating the Heisei era.

Today, April 30, 2019, Akihito abdicates in favor of his son, the Crown Prince Naruhito (1960-), marking this date as the last day of that time and yielding from tomorrow, May 1, to the new era Reiwa.

Beyond the new name, a historical tradition which, since modern times coincide exactly with each imperial succession, the change of era is a moment of transition and reflection on the past and the future of the Japanese nation.

As an integral part of national and global popular culture, Japanese cinema offers us an excellent opportunity to look back and better understand not only the end of the era, but also the basis on which the new era begins. .

The Heisei era began with Japan's position as the world's second largest economy at the height of the real estate and financial bubble that had followed the country's economic growth after its defeat in the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945). ).

However, "the collapse of the bubble" in the early 1990s and the ensuing economic crisis plunged Japanese society into a period of economic stagnation, precarious work and social difficulties that one would call "the lost decade" (ushinawareta jūnen) (or even "the lost 20 years" – ushinawareta nijūnen).

Tokyo Sonata (2008) directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa presents an interesting family portrait in post-bubble Japan, showing the insecurity of work and challenging the status of the nuclear family, emblem of post-war growth , and personal relationships in times of crisis.

In a nicer perspective, Should we dance? (Masayuki Suo, 1996) offers a vision of the crisis of masculinity derived from the uncertainty of work present in the society of the moment.

Although the protagonist, played by Kōji Yakusho, is a salaried (employee) successful, his work is no longer presented as the key element of the social and economic system upon which Japan's recovery after the war rests. Now, his employee position no longer satisfies him enough and he must look for new stimulants that give meaning to a monotonous life without goals. To the surprise of his colleagues and his wife, he will find him in the ballroom, a hobby that moves away from the stereotyped identity of the salaried who plays golf or drinks with colleagues after work.

Faced with the desolate, frustrating and lonely context of the economic crisis in the Heisei era, there is also a nostalgic tendency to look at the past as a time when everything was better.

The precedent was Shōwa (1926-1989) becomes an object of nostalgia in the films that create an uncritical narrative of an innocent, welcoming and energetic society that sacrificed and worked together to overcome the difficulties and destruction of the war . Representative examples of this trend are the trilogy Always: Sunset on Third Street (Takashi Yamazaki, 2005-2007-2012), Tokyo Tower: Mom, me and sometimes dad (Jōji Matsuoka, 2007) or Yōji Yamada's latest film, which also adds a nostalgic cinephile with A Tokyo family (2013), remake of the clbadic of Japanese cinema Tokyo Tales (Yasujiro Ozu, 1953).

During the 30 years of the Heisei era, a series of events laid the foundation for a society that often sees itself and presents itself as an example of harmony and diversity. efficiency.

More recently, the triple disaster (earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Fukushima) of March 3, 2011 was a national tragedy with 15,897 confirmed deaths and several thousand wounded and missing. The consequences of the nuclear disaster and destruction in some areas of the Tōhoku region remain a major problem for part of the population and the Japanese nation.

Many films have portrayed these traumatic events as reflecting their effects and developing aesthetics and emotional reflection on them. The multi-award-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda explores in Distance (2001), emotional wounds among relatives of members of Aum Shinrikyo who participated in the attack, while the documentaries of Tatsuya Mori (A, 1998 and A2, 2001) offer the perspective of followers of the religious group and its dissolution after the arrest of its leader Shoko Asahara.

Mori also examines the immediate consequences of the triple disaster of 311 (2011) visited the evacuated area around the affected Fukushima nuclear power plant and tsunami-affected coastal towns two weeks later, during which relatives search for the bodies of their missing relatives.

In fiction, the cinema of Sion Sono, with films like Himizu (2011) and Land of hope, (2012) depicts repressed rage and fear of the effects of radiation. In addition, the work of documentary and activist Kamanaka Hitomi (Hibakusha at the end of the world2003; Rokkasho Rhapsody2006; Honey ashes2010; Small voices of Fukushima, 2014) presents an interesting perspective on the history of nuclear energy in Japan since the beginning hibakusha (victims of bombing and nuclear radiation), up to the consequences of the Fukushima nuclear disaster on some mothers and their children, through the reaction and resistance movements in the villages against the construction of nuclear power plants years ago.

The Heisei era that ends today also saw the emergence of a series of open questions and social and historical challenges inherited from the new Reiwa era and which will determine the new Japanese company in the coming years.

The cinema has contributed to this through works that foment the debate and complicate dominant discourses by focusing on realities and marginal or hidden points of view. In the field of documentary, films like Yasukuni (Li Ying, 2007), Campaign and Campaign 2 (Kazuhiro Soda, 2007 and 2013) or Sennan Asbestos Catastrophe (Kazuo Hara) have dealt with difficult political and historical issues such as the worship of war criminals in the Yasukuni Temple, electoral politics or the judicial struggle of a group of asbestos-affected people, respectively.

Among others, the anime Roujin Z (Katsuhiro Otomo, 1991) on a future in which older people are cared for by robots or Lily Festival (Sachi Hamano, 2001), comedy about the badual desire of a community of older women; Hafu (Megumi Nishikura and Lara Perez Takagi, 2013), documentary about the experience and identity of mixed race people in Japan; you work as Pyuupiru 2001-2008 (Daishi Matsunaga, 2009), What are you afraid of? (Hisako Matsui, 2015) and Of love and the law (Hikaru Toda, 2017) who individually examine the social situation and public policies in relation to bad change and transbaduality, the legacy of feminist liberation movements of the 1970s or the rights of the LGTBIQ community.

In 2020, the second year of the new Reiwa era, Japan will host the Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo, an important event for Japanese cultural and sports diplomacy in the 21st century. As director Kon Ichikawa did at the time (Tokyo Olympiad, 1964), the famous director Naomi Kawase will produce the commemorative documentary. As in the Heisei era, we hope that Japanese cinema will also continue to participate and build a new era. You will find below the counter counter tag of The Conversation. Please DO NOT REMOVE. End of the code. If you do not see any code above, please get the new code from the Advanced tab after clicking the Republish button. The page counter does not collect any personal data. More information: http://theconversation.com/es/republishing-guidelines

Alejandra Armendáriz Hernández: PhD student in Japanese cinema, Rey Juan Carlos University
Verified by: Lorenzo Javier Torres Hortelano, Professor at the Faculty of Communication Sciences of Rey Juan Carlos University