“Just Breathing Is Enough”: Shiori Ito on Culture Shock, ‘Black Box Diaries’, and Skinny Dipping

For the past eight years, the making of Shiori Ito’s feature debut, Black Box Diaries, has consumed the majority of her life. A riveting portrait of the journalist’s pursuit for some semblance of justice after her sexual assault by powerful colleague Noriyuki Yamaguchi, the film also broadly critiques Japan’s deeply ingrained rape culture. The film’s edit took four years, which entailed sifting through troves of Ito’s intimate video diaries, courtroom footage of the lengthy legal battle against her assailant, covert recordings of a guilt-ridden detective and, in one of the film’s earlier scenes, devastating CCTV footage that shows a clearly inebriated Ito being carried by Yamaguchi into his hotel. 

In her personal quest for restitution, Ito also spurred Japan’s own #MeToo movement; her bravery in the face of sexist oppression—which at several points directly threatened her life—empowered a large swath of women to come forward with stories of their own “black boxes.” Though she is no longer living and working in Japan (“there are so many trolls,” she exasperatedly sighs at one point during our interview), the fact that distribution has been nearly impossible to secure in her country of origin has been the final sticking point on Black Box Diaries’ otherwise successful festival and theatrical run, which began at Sundance back in January. As the year now draws to a close, Ito will be accepting the Best Emerging Filmmaker honor at IDA’s Documentary Awards next month. Black Box Diaries has also secured three nominations, including Best Feature. 

Nearly a decade after the initial assault, Ito finally has breathing room to think ahead—and even reminisce—in regards to her career. For now, the 30-year-old is simply looking forward to eventually “creating a new film that is not about my story” and getting back to her roots as a story-driven, globe-trotting multimedia reporter. In the conversation below, the documentarian reflects on her first encounter with culture shock, how the doc’s impact campaign has continued to evolve, and a particularly transcendent experience of swimming nude in a historic hot spring. This interview has been edited.

DOCUMENTARY: What influenced your desire to study journalism and eventually become a reporter? 

SHIORI ITO: I loved The Lion King when I was growing up. I always dreamed of going to the savanna to report on animals. I got very sick when I was 12-13, so I stayed in a juvenile hospital. Growing up in Japan, you had to be the same as everyone else. When I went to this little school in the hospital, it was the first time I was able to let go of that strictness. Even if you wore your PJs [to class], as long as you were breathing, you were perfect. That experience is what made me want to see if I could do something outside of Japan. I decided to take an exchange year. In my [application], I said that I loved animals and nature. They sent me to Kansas, which was a huge culture shock. I was a huge fan of The O.C. and Laguna Beach, these high school melodramas, but I had no idea where Kansas was. I realized that my classmates didn’t even know where Japan was. They thought, “Which part of China are you from?” 

I realized that information can shape people. I started craving international news, especially. I felt that it was important work to open people’s minds, even if they can’t leave where they are. I was 16 then, and I have wanted to be a journalist ever since. 

D: Your case resulted in Japan changing its archaic rape laws, but I’m curious if you and your team developed an impact campaign for the film itself? 

SI: We’ve been doing so many interviews, but this is the first time someone has asked that. We are now focusing on [working with] the European Union and U.N. Here in the U.S., we are now partnering with RAINN, one of the biggest sexual violence survivors support groups. We also hope that we can also reach back to Japan to highlight what we need to change. Because our rape law has been very outdated, the U.N. has always given the nudge that we need to change. I believe this film can open up the conversation, so it’s really important to do an impact campaign together. We haven’t had a physical event yet, but we are heading back to Europe in November. I’m really excited to see what comes of it.

D: I read that you’re eyeing a potential 2025 release for Black Box Diaries in Japan, which has not been an easy feat. Are there any updates on this front? 

SI: No, unfortunately. Our team in Japan is trying, but we haven’t opened that door. Personally, I feel more like distancing myself because there are so many trolls. It’s a bit crazy, but because people cannot watch the film, some media outlets are writing that since I use CCTV footage, it’s an invasion of privacy. First of all, I had to pay the Sheraton Hotel about $4,000 to get the footage so they could blur out everyone. Of course, the offender and I are in the video, but it’s for public good. It’s really hard seeing every day how difficult it still is to talk about this issue in Japan. 

D: Speaking of work that you have released in Japan recently, your book, Swim Naked, came out there last year. Can you explain the premise and what prompted you to write it? 

SI: Writing this essay was a key element that supported me to direct my own film. When I wrote Black Box as a book, I only could write it from a journalistic point of view. We didn’t start the court case yet, so I didn’t know how much was okay to share. But with the film, every part of my being—as a journalist, as a survivor—was vulnerable and honest. It was difficult. Making this film took eight years. Editing took four years because I always clashed between a journalistic and survivor’s point of view. 

This book is a short essay about the difficulty I went through making this film, but also about everyday life living in Japan as a woman. The name comes from the time that I experienced swimming naked in Japan. We have an amazing hot spring culture, and there’s this amazing island between the main island and Okinawa called Yakushima Island. It’s very volcanic and has a hot spring right next to the ocean, which presented my chance to swim naked. For so many years, people were giving me all of these labels: victim, survivor, daughter, journalist, prostitute, honey trap. I had to let it go because I have no control over what people call me. It was a dark night and I just felt like a living creature. It kind of goes back to the memory I had in the hospital, that just breathing is enough. Now I’m always seeking to swim naked in different places of the world. That experience gave me the mindset I needed to finish this film.

D: Do you think that you will revisit Japanese social issues anytime soon? Is there a specific aspect of the culture that merits further exposure and critique? 

SI: This is just the tip of the iceberg of the systematic society that we are portraying in this film. It’s not just about sexual violence, of course. There are so many other stories that have to be told, but it’s so difficult to tell from Japan. That was my own case. I don’t think I can work as an investigative journalist anymore because I’m way too exposed. But I have to use this exposure to highlight issues from outside. I think that’s the only way nowadays, because the Japanese media is afraid to talk about these things. I wish that I could shake up Japanese journalism in general. It makes it harder for me to go back to Japan, but this is important. I know as time goes on, though I don’t know how many years it will take, we’ll see how necessary it was to talk about all of this. 

D: You’ve been on the festival circuit for Black Box Diaries since it premiered at Sundance back in January, visiting over 30 countries in the process. I’m assuming this means that you haven’t had a ton of time on your hands to begin work on, let alone think about, what comes next for you? 

SI: I just can’t wait to start creating a new film that is not about my story. But along this journey, I realized that every community has a “black box.” Through this film, I just really want to open up to the audience to start thinking, “What’s my black box?” Of course I have a journalistic background, but I think everyone can do this. I’ve been carrying around a recorder to try and make a podcast asking people about their black box, but it’s been so hectic. But I’ve heard so many people start thinking about how they want to tell their own story, and I think that’s very exciting. 

Natalia Keogan is a critic and journalist based in NYC. Her bylines include Filmmaker Magazine, A.V. Club, Reverse Shot, and Paste, amongst others.