An Ant Strikes Back

Film

After years of toiling for a large moving company under dehumanizing and illegal labor conditions—including enforced unpaid overtime, unregulated salary reductions and restricted socializing with other employees—Yu Nishimura was on the brink of literally working himself to death, a phenomenon in Japan (known as karoshi) that officially killed 5,233 people between 2005 and 2017. Tokachi Tsuchiya’s fascinating documentary offers a thrilling first-hand account of Nishimura’s fight to take on the company that exploits him as he agitates for change with a tireless labor union to insist on his right to work and live with dignity on behalf of all “ants.”

Winner, 2020 Japan Documentary Film Award, University of Pittsburgh

2019. 98 min. Directed by Tokachi Tsuchiya.

Tickets: $10 / $ 8 members

Japan Society Film’s programs are generously supported by the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Endowment Fund.

Additional season support is provided by The Globus Family, David Toberisky, Geoff and Fumi Matters, Laurel Gonsalves, James Read Levy, Masu Hiroshi Masuyama, Akiko Koide and Shohei Koide, Dr. Tatsuji Namba, George Gallagher, David S. Howe, Michael Romano, and an anonymous donor.

Transportation assistance is provided by Japan Airlines, the exclusive Japanese airline sponsor of Japan Society Film.