Nihonbara Diary
(Nihonbara: Ushi to hito no daichi)- JAPAN / 2022 / Japanese / Color / DCP / 110 min
Director, Photography: Kurobe Shunsuke
Editing: Hata Takeshi
Sound Mixing: Kawakami Takuya
Narration: Naito Yo
Producer: Kurobe Asako
Production Company: Kurobeko Kikakushitsu
Distribution: Tofoo, LLC.
Nagi, Okayama Prefecture, home to the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Nihonbara Training Area. The film tells the story of Naito Hideyuki and his family, who have raised cattle and cultivated fields in Nagi for fifty years, all the while advocating against war and for peace in a town that extols coexistence and co-prosperity with the Self-Defense Forces. Why did Naito, who was a medical student at the end of the 1960s, become a cowherd?
Born in Tokyo, 1980. Graduated in 2003 from the Waseda University School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Department of Theatre and Film Arts, where he studied film. In 2006, he graduated from the Japan Institute of the Moving Image Film Journal course. He moved to Okayama Prefecture in 2012 and worked in community transition support for the mentally disabled, a job which he left in 2018. He began shooting this film while working at a meat processing factory. This is his directorial debut.