www.007japan.org

May 2002 saw the publication of a new James Bond 007 novel in England, then America and finally in Japan. Set here in Japan, it features the island of Naoshima, which is in our very own Kagawa prefecture, but it is with mixed feelings of joy, thanks and also difficulty that I think about Japan being used once again as the setting for a 007 novel after a space of over thirty years, for it was this which inspired us to pursue this wild dream to try and bring the filming of 007 back to Japan, and it is dream that we hope to be able to turn into reality.

With the help of various companies and organisations and with one hundred agents forming the backbone of the operation, we have been collecting signatures for a petition which we are storing in a bank safe, proving that the activities for the project are no longer merely on a local scale, but are spreading across the country.

There has already been a collection of signatures in Noboribetsu in Hokkaido with a view to encouraging the filming of another Bond film in Japan, and we are working together with the Film Commission and with James Bond fans across the country as well as putting pressure on the production company Eon Productions and the distributor MGM. We need to be prepared to make every effort possible to make a base on which we can build to bring the filming to Japan.

If James Bond is filmed on location in Japan, as well as presenting the beautiful landscapes of our country to the rest of the world, it would reaffirm the breadth and the high standard of Japanese cinema, and it would make me extremely happy.

M