We helped with the feature story of a Singaporean TV network, CNA (Channel News Asia) Insight, titled “Why Did Futuristic Japan Fall Behind Digitally?”.
In the past, Japan has had an image of being a futuristic and technologically advanced country, but in recent years, the country has been criticised for its slow digitalisation, including repeated cyber-attacks. In this programme, we spoke to a range of people, from experts to ordinary citizens, to explore the current situation and problems in Japan, which are available in full on CNA's YouTube channel, if you would like to watch it.
Rio Mimaki was the Fixer and co-ordinated the filming in Japan, including approaching the profiles, arranging logistics such as vehicles, and acting as interpreter on location. The filming was not done by a Japanese crew, but by a CNA producer; Shauna, videographer; Pong and sound engineer; Bala, from Singapore who came to Tokyo. These three people, plus a driver called Bana-san, who is always a great help, and myself, spent a week in various locations in Tokyo filming interviews and b-rolls.
The sound engineer was of Indian descent, and I feared that the food might be a challenge, but there were no problems at all. We enjoyed every meal, and before the last day we even went out together to eat Yakiniku!
We interviewed the following people as experts on digitalisation and cyber-attacks in Japan, and asked them to talk about the reasons for the lack of digitalisation in Japan, why Japan is vulnerable to cyber-attacks, and various other issues.
We were also joined by Arami-san from Toudou Insho, a hanko shop that has been a great help to me, FUUJI-san; Niconico Live Streamer and our friend Yuriko Aoyama, who gave us valuable insights into Japanese society and digitalisation from the point of view of ordinary citizens.
We would like to thank everyone who gave their valuable time to film this edition, especially our interviewees!
For the first time, I had an opportunity to film with the CNA crew from Singapore for an intense week, but what surprised me the most was how hardworking everyone was. I thought Japanese people were the most workaholic, but everyone worked so hard, especially the producer Shauna, and I could feel their enthusiasm to make a good film, which was a great inspiration for us. If you like, come to Japan again and let's go filming together!
