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Paper short abstract

Celebrities arrested for using illicit drugs may issue apologies through the media in Japan, but these acts have almost no legal impact on the criminal justice system. This paper examines the role of apologies by conducting interviews with celebrities within the framework of ‘seken’.

Paper long abstract

This paper considers how persons once labelled in the media as ‘Drug Users’ or ‘Drug Addicts’ are trying to survive and re-integrate into society, focusing specifically on celebrities active in the entertainment and broadcasting industries. In Japan, celebrities are reported by their real names from the moment of arrest due to their perceived news value. They are selectively visualized as ‘non-ordinary’ individuals, effectively showing the boundary between deviance and social control for the audience. These reports function as a ‘status degradation ceremony’, potentially serving as a powerful form of social sanction. News coverage often begins with success stories of police or narcotics agents, and ‘public apologies’ after being released on bail are sometimes carried out as a ‘ritual’. In some cases, the ‘apology’ discourse at the trial stage is also reported. According to a survey of crime news audiences, while about 80% accept real-name reporting, only about 20% of those who accept the reporting believe apology coverage is necessary. The most common reason audiences felt an apology was necessary was because the act was a ‘crime’ or ‘evil’. Crucially, while these apologies have almost no legal impact on the criminal justice system, what essential role do they serve? Celebrities recognize that the seken is demanding apologies. Using the uniquely Japanese cultural framework of ‘seken’ and interviews with celebrities who have experienced such reporting, the role of public apologies is examined. The findings show that the public apology is not merely a performance of sincerity and remorse, but exists as a cultural norm. It fuctions as a survival strategy—a defensive strategies designed to stop obsessive media chasing and to shield the individual from the surveillant gaze of the public within seken. Such reports will remain on the internet as a ‘digital tattoo’ or ‘digital punishment’, and can become a factor causing obstacles to the social reintegration of those who have been reported under their names for drug use. Despite facing ‘ikizurasa’, celebrities are found to be taking initiative to find their ‘ibasho’ again. Furthermore, the need to reconsider existing normative practices in Japanese media coverage has been shown.