Japan: A Story of Love and Hate

It's so common trick,

after five, where's the script?

After five years.

Five years is like five years.

It's only two of those that you plan,

still, the door inside Japan, getting inside Japan,

the sliding doors of Japan remain firmly closed.

This track, jog and think of lines of commentary,

think of ways to film

the film that wasn't happening.

To get out of my hotel room, to stop getting depressed,

to stop drinking, to stop taking sleeping pills.

Most days, I seem to be getting nowhere,

and most nights I just wanted to fly home.

Now, Grace pushed me away, taken Ted (mumbles).

'Cause I filmed them in the hot tub.

Which seemed completely innocent to me.

And now I've got Naoki.

So, I've started to film Naoki again.

And I love Naoki.

I'm so happy.

I feel great, left me here,

'cause now I'm filming Naoki again.

He seemed to be the only person I was filming

who didn't judge me, who didn't expect me to be Japanese.

And who didn't mind me making my stupid British mistakes.

he tell me privately last night,

he doesn't like British people, but he likes me, ha!

I'd come to Japan to make a film

about what makes this crazy place tick,

but two years on, I'm more confused than ever.

My mission was to make a film about Tokyo

for BBC and then HKTV,

but having failed, I'd come 300 miles north

to a rural town called Yamagata.

Wow, this is tiny street.

This was my last attempt at getting inside Japan.

I've been told about Naoki,

a person who'd broken all the rules,

a radical Communist regime

who'd gone on to be a successful entrepreneur,

but when I met him,

he was working part time at the post office.

Are you collecting insurance money?

Not insurance, fee over there.

Yeah, yeah, insurance money.

I have no insurance (chuckles).

Hey, slow down!

Slow down!

Is it okay to take a break?

It's okay.

Legal?

I don't know about legal.

But it's natural.

Right.

In a time when it was totally unacceptable to divorce,

he'd been married three times

and was now struggling in a relationship

with a girl half his age.

She wants you to get a second job, yeah?

Huh?

Your girlfriend.

Ah, yeah.

- Wants you to get job number two.

Yes, she wants.

I'm troublesome for her.

She hates me.

Do you hate her?

No, I need her.

Why?

- To survive the fucking this country.

- Now, he was a breath of fresh air,

a rebel was a rare thing here.

He was a Maoist.

It's very the extreme people.

You were making bombing.

Put fire, and threw that overhead.

Because we love baseball,

the underthrow is not so good.

Who were you bombing?

The police?

No, big company.

Really?

Yes.

- It was rare to be invited to a Japanese home,

but Naoki wanted to show me his.

He told me to treat carefully, things were sensitive.

She's asleep.

I was shocked by the tiny room with no windows

where he'd been living with his girlfriend Yoshie

for the last five years.

When his last business went under,

she'd saved him from being homeless.

But now she'd had to take a second job to support him.

Their situation was the last thing

I expected to find in Japan,

the second richest nation on earth.

(people speak in foreign language)

Now he was forced to take the only job he could find,

part time at the Central Yamagata post office.

Part time here means working seven hours a day

for just 3.50 pounds an hour.

Until now, I felt locked out of Japan,

but naoki was keen to get me inside.

Each day starts at 8:00 a.m. with early morning exercises.

It was like landing on the moon:

Grown men dancing in suits.

Was this modern high tech Japan?

The Japanese view the workplace as one happy family.

But as a foreigner here,

it didn't feel like home to me.

I wondered how Naoki, a life-long outsider,

would cope with the pressure

of being a part of this Japanese family.

It's kind of role playing,

same thing every day.

Some people crazy, go to hospital.

Really?

Yeah.

Depress.

Really?

- Yeah, because every day check from the boss,

Why did you get every day zero?

Every day zero, fuck you!

You are not human!

You are under the animal.

Why?

You are stealing your salary, every day steal, stolen.

Yeah, depressed, depressed, depressed.

- So they go to mental hospital?

Yes.

30,000 people kill themself.

30,000?

Yeah, 30,000.

A big shame.

But you gave me this fucking capitalist system

one hundred years ago (chuckles).

First the East India company,

and after China, after Japan.

Open the country.

Yeah.

And now you're rich.

Is this rich?

Is military rich?

Is good system?

You gave me.

Sorry.

Just over one hundred years ago, Japan was a closed country,

until the West forced it to open its doors

and trade with the rest of the world.

It was then it adopted our capitalist system,

that has made it the second richest nation on earth.

Naoki ran a number of successful businesses.

But the economy collapsed in 1992.

And like thousands of others, he lost everything.

Now, there's more pressure on everyone to work harder.

As jobs for life are no more in Japan,

Naoki took the only work he could find,

part time collecting life insurance premiums

for the post office.

He gets paid six times less than the full timers.

But at least he is free

from having to meet their daily sales targets.

I realise it one moment,

they have no good results.

They walk like this.

- Do you think they are successful today?

They?

No (chuckles).

Why?

Too early.

I'm free!

This is Yamagata city.

You can see the big one building.

- Naoki wanted to show me his hometown

and pointed out the six-bedroom house where he used to live.

After the family business went bust,

he fell out with his brother.

He hasn't spoken to him since.

Today, he has no one left in the city,

except his girlfriend Yoshie.

- Our family, my brother, me had three houses in the city.

And two company, on, two, thee,

two company, one bar.

And I had a BMW.

I bought the BMW new with cash, 70 million yen.

- Do you remember Naoki's bar?

Is that where you met Naoki for the first time?

Is that where you met, in your bar?

So, so.

Customer.

Customer?

- I was told not to make a sound

when Yoshie's clients called up.

To them she was single.

Since Naoki had moved in,