1921 (Taisho 10) The movie “Disraeli” was released in the United States on Sunday, August 28. It is a film about the life of British politician Benjamin Disraeli in the early 19 century. Veteran actor George Arlis played the main character, Disraeli. Benjamin Disraeli is a highly respected figure in Britain, a Jewish who rose to be leader of Britain’s Conservative Party and served as prime minister for two terms.
This film will be released in Japan 3 years later on July 8, 1924 (Taisho 13), but after the start of the screening, a part of the film was considered problematic and the screening was cancelled on July 12. At that time, the film was censored by the competent police station. I’m interested in which scene was regarded as a problem, but I couldn’t find any historical materials and didn’t understand well. In any case, the film company cut the problematic parts and allowed the screening again on the 24th. As for the film censorship by the competent police station, there were regional variations regarding the pros and cons of screening, and there was a growing dissatisfaction on the part of the film companies that bear the expenses for the censorship. In response to the request of the film companies in the following year, 1925 (Taisho 14), the “Rules for the Censorship of Activity Photographs” of the Ministry of Home Affairs, which was unified throughout the country, was implemented.
After World War II, reflecting on the excessive censorship by the state before the war, a federation of filmmakers established its own code of ethics and began to conduct screening by the independent management of the industry. Currently, the Motion Picture Ethics Organization, a general incorporated foundation, has established a third-party ethics committee as an independent organization in the film industry to review films before they are released, taking into account the balance between freedom of speech and expression and their impact on society.
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