Film review of ‘Ushiku’ (2021, Thomas Ash): Breaking silence against the violence of immigration detention in Japan

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Film review of ‘Ushiku’ (2021, Thomas Ash): Breaking silence against the violence of immigration detention in Japan

By Kazue Takamura and Theresa Decius-Timothee | Issue 26 Ushiku (2020) tells the story of Japan’s carceral violence against refugees in immigration detention. This is a powerful and rare documentary that opens the black box of global immigration detention regimes by focusing on Japan, a country not often in the spotlight. The title Ushiku refers to the municipality in Ibaraki prefecture, located about one hour north of Tokyo, where a notorious, …