Arm's Length Principle For Art エグザイルと是枝監督

Japanese follows English.　英語の後に日本語が続きます。

Have you ever heard of "Exile"? Exile is a Japanese pop music group organized in 1999. The number of its members was three or four in the beginning, but has increased since then and now it consists of 19 male singers and dancers. (Please go to this website for details, though only in Japanese.)

I liked this group because of its openness and energy, which is understandable considering the background of the original leader Hiro, who had been once a very famous dancer, lost everything after the burst of the bubble economy, but returned to the entertainment industry not only as the leader of Exile, but as the founder of the talent agency of the group.

But I have been feeling something strange about this group recently, like I felt something wrong with a male-dominated company I used to work for, i.e., a sense of suffocation, closedness, rigidity or hierarchy, particularly since they sang for the 20th anniversary of the Emperor Akihito's accession to the throne. I'm not saying that it's wrong for them to sing for the anniversary, but the group members are no longer "exiles," but seem to have close relations with those who would do anything to keep the status quo.

Mr. Hirokazu Koreeda, the director of Palme D'Or wining "Shoplifters," refused an invitation from the Ministry of Culture to celebrate the award winning. Art, whether songs or films, should keep an arm's length distance from politics because once it loses such distance and receives any financial or reputational benefit from political or any powerful circle, it's no longer art. The arm's length principle is important not only for business but also for art.

エグザイル変わったな、と思い始めたのはいつ頃からだろうか。人数が増えたのはいい。雰囲気だ。以前は、ヒロの経歴とも相まって自由なエネルギーを感じていたが、今は息苦しさ、閉鎖性、序列しか感じない。天皇の即位20周年の式典で歌ったのもダメとは言わないが、少なくとも彼らはもうエグザイル、亡命者ではない。現状を維持しようと躍起になっている人の仲間にしか見えない。

万引き家族の是枝裕和、文科省からの祝意を辞退したとのこと。いいね！芸術は権力とは距離を置くべき。何かしらの見返りをもらってモノ申せなくなった瞬間、それはもう芸術ではなくなると思う。「関係者だからといってエコひいきしてはダメ」という「独立企業原則」　今、盛んに税務の世界で言われているが、芸術の世界にも当てはまることだと思う。