General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Journalist (新聞記者)

The Journalist (新聞記者, Shinbun Kisha) is a 2019 Japanese political thriller directed by Michihito Fujii, in which a newspaper reporter and a conflicted government bureaucrat uncover a scandal reaching into the highest circles of the Japanese government. It was released in Japan on June 28, 2019, runs 113 minutes, and is an original story inspired by the non-fiction book of the same name by Tokyo Shimbun journalist Isoko Mochizuki (望月衣塑子)¹^•². The film won three Japan Academy Prizes at the 43rd Japan Academy Awards, including Best Picture of the Year³.

Key fact	Detail
Release	June 28, 2019 (Japan); 113 minutes; drama/feature¹
Director and screenplay	Michihito Fujii; screenplay by Roba Shimori, Akihiko Takaishi, and Fujii¹
Source	Original story inspired by Isoko Mochizuki's non-fiction book Shinbun Kisha, published October 12, 2017 by Kadokawa Shoten¹^•²
Lead cast	Shim Eun-kyung as reporter Erika Yoshioka; Tori Matsuzaka as bureaucrat Takumi Sugihara¹
Awards	Three Japan Academy Prizes at the 43rd awards (2020), including Best Picture of the Year³
Japan box office	$3,753,794⁴
Series adaptation	Netflix series starring Ryoko Yonekura, also directed by Fujii, premiered January 13, 2022⁵

Spoilers

Plot

Erika Yoshioka (Shim Eun-kyung) is a reporter for the Toto Newspaper. Born to a Japanese father and a Korean mother and raised in the United States, she receives an anonymous fax containing highly confidential information related to a plan to build a new university, and begins investigating². Meanwhile, Takumi Sugihara (Tori Matsuzaka) is a bureaucrat in the Cabinet Intelligence and Research Office who feels conflicted about his professional duty to control news unfavorable to the administration. When Sugihara runs into Kanzaki, a former boss whom he holds in high regard, after a long gap, the older man takes his own life only days afterward¹.

As Yoshioka follows the trail, the two uncover a scandal that reaches into the highest circles of government, and the closer they get to the truth, the more dangerous the situation becomes for both of them⁶. The film depicts how state authority clashes with the news media¹.

Political context and reception

The film is a blunt critique of the administration of then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. The Japan Times described it as an unlikely success story that seemed like commercial suicide but became a sleeper hit and won three Japan Academy Prizes, including best picture⁷. Its subject mirrors real events: it is loosely based on Mochizuki's reporting on a 2017 political scandal involving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe concerning Moritomo Gakuen, a private educational institute that used government connections to obtain state-owned land cheaply, with records of the couple's involvement removed from related documents⁸.

Promotion difficulties. Producer Mitsunobu Kawamura said that although there was no direct government pressure during filmmaking, the film was allowed to advertise only in newspapers and via social media; all broadcast media, even radio, refused to promote it, which he described as a form of unspoken pressure⁸. At a press conference in Seoul in October 2019, Kawamura said he made the movie "under invisible pressure" and expressed hope that both Prime Minister Abe and Korean President Moon Jae-in would watch it⁹.

Director Fujii said that when the film was first released in Japan, younger audiences often thought the entire film was fiction and said they had not known such things had actually happened. He said he wanted the film to tell the media that they need the power to doubt the government's ways⁸.

Production

Michihito Fujii, born in Tokyo in 1986, founded the production company BABEL LABEL while studying at Nihon University College of Art; his feature debut Oh! Father was released in 2014⁶. He turned down the opportunity to direct The Journalist twice, saying he was from a generation indifferent to everyday politics and relied on the internet rather than newspapers for news; producer Kawamura persuaded him that the film needed the fresh perspective of a younger generation disinterested in current politics⁸.

The screenplay was written by Roba Shimori, Akihiko Takaishi, and Fujii, with music by Taro Iwashiro and cinematography by Keisuke Imamura¹^•². Fujii added the bureaucrat's inner conflict as a major element not developed in Mochizuki's book, seeing in the Sugihara character the conflict of an individual within a large organization¹⁰. Shim Eun-kyung visited the Tokyo Shimbun before shooting to study a reporter's day and contributed details such as reporters' hunched posture and a habit of applying gel to her hands before writing¹⁰.

The casting of a Korean actress, Shim Eun-kyung, in the lead role of a Japanese film drew wide attention and discussion in both countries. Kawamura said the role was offered to no one else, and Fujii praised her adaptation to Japan's tight shooting schedules, which usually run under a month, and her acting in Japanese⁸^•⁹.

Netflix series adaptation

A six-episode Netflix series adaptation, also titled The Journalist, premiered on January 13, 2022, with Fujii returning as director. Ryoko Yonekura plays a new protagonist, Anna Matsuda, a Toto Newspaper reporter known as the "maverick of news media" who strives to expose issues in modern Japanese society; the cast also includes Go Ayano, Ryusei Yokohama, Hidetaka Yoshioka, and Shinobu Terajima⁵^•¹¹. The series uses a different story from the film: where the film centered on a new university plan, the series centers on a document-tampering scandal modeled more closely on the real Moritomo issue¹².

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 2015–2019 films › Thriller and mystery films › Titles F to N

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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