A Japanese lawyer has taken the Toyko police to court to try to obtain unreleased footage of The Beatles only tour of Japan in 1966.

When the Fab Four came to tour Japan in 1996, the country's Metropolitan Police Department had strict security measures in place. It also recorded 35 minutes of film, which has never been released, save for 17 seconds which featured in the 2016 documentary "The Beatles: Eight Days a Week". 

Lawyer (second) and massive fan of The Beatles (first), Satoshi Shinkai, has requested that the police release the footage on the grounds that it is a historical document. 

Last year, Shinkai submitted an action in the Tokyo District Court seeking the full release of the footage. But the court rejected it on privacy grounds of identifying members of the public. Shinkai says the argument is absurd since it would be almost impossible to identify any of the people after more than 50 years.

 

Shinkai has now filed an appeal with the Tokyo High Court. The police said that it had no plans to release the footage, so it seems that for now Shinkai is getting nowhere man (sorry).