While many countries in Asia have developed collectivization, Japan has especially developed individualism. This is caused by the geographical characteristic that Japan is an insular country. Because of geographical features, Japan had emphasized the importance of defense against foreign invasion historically and had thought that continuous fusion and exchanging with the outside world was also crucial. However, it was not easy to smoothly interact with the outside world, so Japan emphasized a firm sense of self and individualism. The seriousness of the problem is that Japan's individualism is avoidance of exchange with others.
The movie 'Nobody Knows' reproduced the 'Sugamo child abandonment case' that caused a stir throughout Japan in 1988, and it shows the reality of Japan's individualism. The misfortune began with an incident where a mother left her house and four children were abandoned. They did not attend school and had been neglected in the house because they were ghost children. Children did not have enough economic ability to live. However, adults who could take care of children did not appear until the end of the movie. Four children survived, but nobody knows of their thereabouts now, such as the movie is titled.
If this movie induced empathy, we would blame only the mother in the movie. However, the director, Hirokazu Koreeda knew well that, as society and people left deprived children, they lived unfortunate lives. Therefore, the movie objectively shed light on the case without shifting all the blame to the mother. It takes an observer's position on the children's lives and stirs bitterness from deep within humans' hearts. In addition, this movie let us think about Japan's extreme individualism and indifference about poor children.