Movie subsidy cancellation of movie subsidy starring guilty actor for illegal drug is appropriate Tokyo High Court

The Tokyo High Court said in two court decisions that the production company accused the production company of canceling the subsidy for a movie starring an actor who was found guilty of using cocaine. He pointed out that "the decision not to deliver it from the viewpoint of the public interest of preventing the abuse of illegal drugs is not significantly unreasonable," and dismissed the complaint of the production company, contrary to the first instance.

The production company of the movie "From Miyamoto to You" is an affiliated organization of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology "Japanese Art" because Pierre Taki, an actor who was convicted of using cocaine three years ago, appeared. The Japan Arts Council complained that the cancellation of the 10 million yen subsidy was a violation of freedom of expression.

The Tokyo District Court of the first instance handed down a judgment granting the subsidy, saying that "the subsidy given to the movie production company has nothing to do with the criminal acts of the performers," and the affiliated organization appealed. ..

In the judgment of the second trial on the 3rd, Judge Satoshi Adachi of the Tokyo High Court said, "While illegal drugs have become a social problem, it is extremely unreasonable to decide not to deliver them from the viewpoint of the public interest of preventing substance abuse. I can't say that. "

After that, he revoked the judgment of the 1st trial and said, "It does not mean that the content of the movie was not delivered from an artistic point of view, and it does not violate the principle that it is not related to the content because it guarantees freedom of expression." I rejected the complaint.

Filmmaking company “Judgment that public interest is superior to art”

Regarding the judgment, Mitsunobu Kawamura, CEO of the movie production company "Star Sands", said, "The judgment is that the public interest is superior from the artistic point of view, it is not convincing, and it is extremely ridiculous."

Attorney Takashi Shinomiya said, "It's a shame that we lost the case in reverse. It surely gives a big chilling effect to future expression activities and effectively restricts freedom of expression. It can only be said to be an extremely regrettable decision." He stated and expressed his intention to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Japan Arts Council states, "We have not confirmed the details of the decision and cannot comment."