This article is a list of Japanese

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, pr ...

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A

* Yutaka Abe *

Masao Adachi Masao Adachi (足立正生 ''Adachi Masao'', born May 13, 1939) is a Japanese screenwriter, director, actor and former Japanese Red Army member who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in Fukuoka Prefecture. Career Best known for h ...

* Kyōko Aizome *

Masatoshi Akihara is a Japanese film director. Filmography A filmography is a list of films related by some criteria. For example, an actor's career filmography is the list of films they have appeared in; a director's comedy filmography is the list of comedy fi ...

* Keita Amemiya *

Tetsurō Amino is a Japanese anime director, born on October 10, 1955, in Chiba Prefecture. In 1988, he started using his name in katakana. Works * '' Arashi no Yoru ni: Himitsu no Tomodachi'' * ''Bakusō Kyōdai Let's & Go!!'' * ''Bubu Chacha'' * ''DT Eightr ...

* Hiroshi Ando *

Hideaki Anno is a Japanese animator, filmmaker and actor. He is best known for creating the anime series ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'' (1995)''.'' His style is defined by his postmodernist approach and the extensive portrayal of characters' thoughts and emotio ...

* Shinji Aoyama * Tarō Araki *

Genjiro Arato was a Japanese film producer, actor and director. Career In 1980, Arato produced ''Zigeunerweisen'' for director Seijun Suzuki. He was unable to secure exhibitors for the film and famously exhibited it himself in a specially-built, inflatable, ...

* Mari Asato

D

Masanobu Deme was a Japanese film director. Career Born in Shiga Prefecture, Deme graduated from Waseda University before joining the Tōhō studio in 1957. After serving as an assistant director under such directors as Akira Kurosawa, Shūe Matsubayashi, ...

Nobuhiro Doi is a Japanese television and film director. Education Nobuhiro Doi graduated from Waseda University School of Economics and Politics. Works *'' Aoi Tori'' (1997, TV series) *''Majo no Jōken'' (1999, TV series) *'' Beautiful Life'' (2000, T ...

F

* Kei Fujiwara * Kinji Fukasaku * Jun Fukuda *

Yasuo Furuhata was a Japanese film director. He was a director of Toei film company and he often worked with Ken Takakura in such films as '' Eki'' and ''Shin Abashiri Bangaichi''. He won the 2000 Japan Academy Prize for Director of the Year and 31st Internat ...

Tomoyuki Furumaya (born 14 November 1968) is a Japanese film director. Career Born in Nagano Prefecture, Furumaya was attending Nihon University when his 16mm film, '' Shakunetsu no dojjibōru'', won the grand prize at the Pia Film Festival. That earned him a ...

G

Hideo Gosha was a Japanese film director. Born in Arasaka, Tokyo Prefecture, Gosha graduated from high school and served in the Imperial Navy during the Second World War. After earning a business degree at Meiji University, he joined Nippon television as a ...

* Heinosuke Gosho

H

* Sachi Hamano * Tsutomu Hanabusa * Susumu Hani * Masato Harada * Yasuharu Hasebe *

Kazuhiko Hasegawa is a Japanese film director. He won the award for Best Director at the 1st Yokohama Film Festival for ''The Man Who Stole the Sun''. Life and career Hasegawa began his career in film at Nikkatsu in the early 1970s as a scriptwriter on such '' ...

* Ryusuke Hamaguchi * Ryōsuke Hashiguchi * Kaizo Hayashi * Shinji Higuchi * Hideyuki Hirayama * Ryūichi Hiroki * Ishirō Honda

I

* Jun Ichikawa * Kon Ichikawa * Mako Idemitsu *

George Iida is a Japanese film and television director, screenwriter, manga author, and novelist. Iida has worked continually in Japan's film, television, anime and manga industries since the early 1980s, predominantly in the genres of horror and science fi ...

* Takahiko Iimura * Toshiharu Ikeda * Kazuo Ikehiro * Yutaka Ikejima *

Kaoru Ikeya is a Japanese amateur astronomer who discovered a number of comets. As a young adult, Ikeya lived near Lake Hamana and worked for a piano factory. During his employment there, he made his first discovery in 1963 with an optical telescope he bu ...

* Kunihiko Ikuhara * Tadashi Imai * Shohei Imamura *

Shinji Imaoka a.k.a. is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of a group of ''pink film'' directors of the 2000s known collectively as the , which besides Imaoka, also includes Toshiya Ueno, Mitsuru Meike, Yūji Tajiri, Yoshitaka Kamata ...

* Hiroshi Inagaki * Haruo Inoue *

Umetsugu Inoue was a Japanese film director and scriptwriter. He directed 115 movies, wrote 101 screenplays, and is credited with the original story for five films. In addition, he worked with all six major Japanese film production companies. His film work ex ...

* Isshin Inudo *

Minoru Inuzuka was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Starting out as a screenwriter at Shochiku in 1924, he also participated in the production of Teinosuke Kinugasa's ''A Page of Madness''. When Chōjirō Hayashi (later known as Kazuo Hasegawa) became ...

* Yu Irie *

Katsuhito Ishii is a Japanese film director best known for directing '' The Taste of Tea'' (2004), '' Funky Forest'' (2005), and ''Smuggler'' (2011). Career After graduating from Musashino Art University, Ishii got a job at Tohokushinsha Film and began dir ...

* Sōgo Ishii * Takashi Ishii *

Teruo Ishii was a Japanese film director best known in the West for his early films in the ''Super Giant'' series, and for his films in the ''ero guro'' ("erotic-grotesque") subgenre of '' pinku eiga'' such as '' Shogun's Joy of Torture'' (1968). He also dir ...

* Yuya Ishii *

Kyōhei Ishiguro is a Japanese anime director. He debuted in 2009, and after doing the storyboards for three series, he was given the full directorial role in the anime adaptation of '' Your Lie in April''. After directing other television series, he debuted as a ...

Noboru Ishiguro was a Japanese animator best known for directing the anime series '' Space Battleship Yamato II'', ''Super Dimension Fortress Macross'', ''Super Dimension Century Orguss'', ''Humanoid Monster Bem'', '' Megazone 23 - Part I'', ''Legend of the Ga ...

* Hiroshi Ishikawa *

Itsumichi Isomura is a Japanese film director. He won the award for Best Director at the 20th Yokohama Film Festival The is an annual awards ceremony held in Yokohama, Japan. Ten films are chosen as the best of the year and various awards are given to personne ...

Juzo Itami , born , was a Japanese actor, screenwriter and film director. He directed eleven films (one short and ten features), all of which he wrote himself. Early life Itami was born Yoshihiro Ikeuchi in Kyoto. The name Itami was passed on from his fath ...

* Mansaku Itami * Daisuke Itō * Shunya Itō *

Shunji Iwai is a Japanese film director, video artist, writer and documentary maker. Life and career Iwai was born in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. He attended Yokohama National University, graduating in 1987. In 1988 he started out in the Japanese entertainmen ...

Yuki Iwata is a Japanese film director and illustrator. Career Iwata is the director of the 2011 film '' Looking for a True Fiancee'', which was based on a novel by Takami Itō. References External links * Yuki Iwata at CinemaToday Japanese f ...

Shigeru Izumiya Shigeru Izumiya (泉谷しげる ''Izumiya Shigeru'', born May 11, 1948 in Aomori, raised in Meguro, Tokyo) is a Japanese poet, folk singer, actor, tarento. He established the record company For Life Records with Takuro Yoshida, Yosui Inoue, ...

Kazuyuki Izutsu is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and film critic. Career Born in Nara Prefecture, Izutsu started making 8mm films in high school, and directed his first 35mm film, a pink film, in 1975. He earned a citation from the Directors Guild of ...

K

* Norimasa Kaeriyama * Shusuke Kaneko * Yoshikazu Katō * Naomi Kawase *

Yūzō Kawashima was a Japanese film director, most famous for making tragi-comic films and satires. Career Kawashima was born in Mutsu, Aomori in the Shimokita Peninsula. From his youth, he suffered from a paralysis that affected his right leg and arm. He was ...

Keisuke Kinoshita was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Ronald Berganbr>"A satirical eye on Japan: Keisuke Kinoshita" ''The Guardian'', 5 January 1999. While lesser-known internationally than contemporaries such as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi an ...

* Teinosuke Kinugasa * Ryuhei Kitamura *

Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television presenter, actor, filmmaker, and author. While he is known primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan, he is better known abroad for his work as a filmmaker and actor as well as TV host. With th ...

* Masaki Kobayashi * Satoru Kobayashi * Takashi Koizumi * Satoshi Kon * Masaru Konuma *

Hirokazu Koreeda is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He began his career in television and has since directed more than a dozen feature films, including '' Nobody Knows'' (2004), '' Still Walking'' (2008), and '' After the Storm'' ( ...

Seijirō Kōyama (born 16 July 1941) is a Japanese film director. Career Born in Gifu Prefecture, Kōyama attended Nihon University but quit midway to join the independent production company Kindai Eiga Kyokai, where he worked as an assistant director under suc ...

Kei Kumai was a Japanese film director from Azumino, Nagano prefecture. After his studies in literature at Shinshu University, he began work as a director's assistant. He won the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award for his first film, '' Nihon r ...

* Tatsumi Kumashiro * Minoru Kunizawa * Kazuo Kuroki *

Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed thirty films in a career spanning over five decades. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema. Kurosawa displayed a bold, dyna ...

Kiyoshi Kurosawa is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, film critic and a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts. Although he has worked in a variety of genres, Kurosawa is best known for his many contributions to the Japanese horror genre, his honorific n ...

M

Kunitoshi Manda is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and film critic. Biography Kunitoshi Manda was a student at Rikkyo University, where he took Shigehiko Hasumi's filmology class. Manda directed his first feature film, '' Unloved'', in 2001. It won the G ...

Yasuzo Masumura was a Japanese film director. Biography Masumura was born in Kōfu, Yamanashi. After dropping out of a law course at the University of Tokyo he worked as an assistant director at the Daiei Film studio, later returning to university to study ph ...

Mitsuru Meike is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the group of prominent ''pink film'' directors known collectively as the which comprises Meike, Toshiya Ueno, Yūji Tajiri, Shinji Imaoka, Yoshitaka Kamata, Toshirō Enomoto a ...

Mitsuhiro Mihara Mihara Mitsuhiro (三原光尋; born 1964 in Kyoto, Japan) is a Japanese film director. Filmography *真夏のビタミン (''Manatsu no bitamin''; lit. "Midsummer vitamin") (1994) *風の王国 (''kaze no oukoku''; lit. "Kingdom of the wind") (1 ...

Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over one hundred theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films run through a variety of different genres, and range from violent a ...

* Takahiro Miki *

Kenji Misumi (2 March 1921 – 24 September 1975) was a Japanese film director. He created film series such as ''Lone Wolf and Cub'' and the initial film in the long-running ''Zatoichi'' series, and also directed ''Hanzo the Razor: Sword of Justice'', starri ...

* Kōki Mitani * Hayao Miyazaki * Kenji Mizoguchi * Yoshimitsu Morita *

Katsuyuki Motohiro is a Japanese film director. Filmography *''Odoru Daisosasen Bangaihen – Wangansho Fukei Monogatari Shoka no Kôtsûanzen Special'' (1998) *'' Bayside Shakedown: The Movie'' (1998) *''Space Travelers'' (2000) *''Satorare'' (2001) *'' Bayside S ...

* Kan Mukai *

Ryū Murakami is a Japanese novelist, short story writer, essayist, and filmmaker. His novels explore human nature through themes of disillusionment, drug use, surrealism, murder, and war, set against the dark backdrop of Japan. His best known novels are '' A ...

* Minoru Murata

N

Kenji Nagasaki is a Japanese anime director employed by Madhouse. He made his full directorial debut in 2011 with '' No. 6''. Starting in 2016, he directed the anime adaptation of ''My Hero Academia'', which has received praise from critics. Biography Kenji N ...

Shunichi Nagasaki is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Filmography Director *1982 '' Yamiutsu shinzo'' a.k.a. ''Heart, Beating in the Dark'' *1988 ''Rock yo shizukani nagareyo'' *1988 '' Yojo no jidai'' *1989 ''Yuwakusha'' a.k.a. ''The Enchantment'' * ...

* Masahiko Nagasawa *

Sadao Nakajima is a Japanese film director and screenwriter (born 8 August, 1934) known for his work in yakuza films and jidaigeki. Career Born in Chiba Prefecture, he attended Hibiya High School and then the University of Tokyo before joining the Tōei studi ...

* Hiroyuki Nakano * Hideo Nakata * Mikio Naruse *

Giichi Nishihara , also known as , was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor best known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for his Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s. He has been called both "Japan's sleaziest movie ...

* Katsumi Nishikawa *

Miwa Nishikawa is a Japanese director and screenwriter. Nishikawa received a degree in literature from the University of Waseda, and after working on several independent films as well as catching the eye of Hirokazu Kore-eda, her film making career took off ...

* Yoshitaro Nomura

O

Mipo O is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and commercial director. Her name is also romanized Mipo Oh. Career After graduating from the Osaka University of Arts Visual Concept Planning Department, O began working as a screenwriter under director ...

* Nobuhiko Obayashi * Masayuki Ochiai *

Motoyoshi Oda was a Japanese filmmaker who directed over 50 films in his career. An English major who graduated from Waseda University in 1935, Motoyoshi Oda was accepted into the directors' program at Tokyo's P.C.L. (Photo Chemical Laboratories, a film comp ...

Akira Ogata was a Japanese chemist and the first to synthesize methamphetamine in crystalline form in 1919. Career In 1912, Ogata graduated from the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tokyo. In 1919 he received a degree from the Humboldt University ...

Shinsuke Ogawa (25 June 1935 - 7 February 1992) was a Japanese documentary film director. Ogawa and Noriaki Tsuchimoto have been called the "two figures hattower over the landscape of Japanese documentary." Career Ogawa began his career at Iwanami Productions ...

* Naoko Ogigami * Kōhei Oguri * Kōyū Ohara * Kihachi Okamoto *

Eiji Okuda is a Japanese actor and film director. Born in Kasugai, Aichi, he was nominated for the Best Actor award at the 1990 Japanese Academy Awards for his performance in ''Sen no Rikyu''. He won the award for best actor at the 37th Blue Ribbon Awards ...

* Shutaro Oku * Kazuki Ōmori *

Tatsushi Ōmori is a Japanese film director and actor. Career Ōmori was born in Tokyo as the eldest son of Akaji Maro, an actor and butoh dancer. His younger brother, Nao Ōmori, is an actor. While in college, he began making 8 mm films, but started working ...

Hideo Onchi was a Japanese film and television director. Career Born in Tokyo, Onchi graduated from Keio University and joined the Toho studios. He debuted as a director with '' Wakai ōkami'' (1961), and first made a name for himself directing youth fi ...

Mamoru Oshii is a Japanese filmmaker, television director and writer. Famous for his philosophy-oriented storytelling, Oshii has directed a number of acclaimed anime films, including '' Urusei Yatsura 2: Beautiful Dreamer'' (1984), '' Angel's Egg'' (1985) ...

* Nagisa Oshima * Kentarō Ōtani *

Katsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, screenwriter, animator and film director. He is best known as the creator of '' Akira'', in terms of both the original 1982 manga series and the 1988 animated film adaptation. He was decorated a ''Chevalier'' of t ...

* Keiichi Ozawa * Yasujirō Ozu

S

* Sabu (Tanaka Hiroyuki) * Yoichi Sai (Choi Yang-il) * Kōichi Saitō * Torajiro Saito * Junji Sakamoto *

Kazuhiro Sano is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor best known for his ''pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Takahisa Zeze, Toshiki Satō and Hisayasu Sato, he is known as one of the . Sano's films differ from those of oth ...

* Hirohisa Sasaki *

Hisayasu Satō is a Japanese exploitation film director. He has worked prolifically in the genre of '' pinku eiga'' films, which refers to Japanese films that prominently feature nudity or sexual content. His best-known works are the 1992 pink film ''The Bedr ...

Junya Sato was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. His son is a fellow film director . Career Born in Tokyo, Satō graduated from the University of Tokyo in 1956 with a degree in French literature. He joined the Toei studio and worked as an assist ...

* Shimako Satō * Toshiki Satō *

Yūichi Satō is a Japanese film director. Filmography *''Pray'' (2005) *''Simsons'' ( ja) (2006) *'' Kisaragi'' (2007) *''Guardian Angel'' ( ja) (2009) *''A Man on the Verge at a Black Company'' ( ja) (2009) *''Strawberry Night'' (2013) *'' Poison Berry in M ...

* Kōji Seki *

Kazuyoshi Sekine Kazuyoshi Sekine (関根和美 ''Sekine Kazuyoshi''), also known as Kazumi Sekine, is a Japanese film director, a dramatist, and a movie producer and the president of Sekine Production production company (関根プロ). He mainly directs movies pro ...

* Makoto Shinkai * Yasujirō Shimazu * Hiroshi Shimizu * Takashi Shimizu * Kaneto Shindo *

Kōji Shiraishi is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and occasional actor. He is primarily known for directing Japanese horror films, most notably ''Noroi: The Curse''. Background Kōji Shiraishi was born and raised in Fukuoka, Japan. After graduating fr ...

* Masahiro Shinoda *

Tetsuo Shinohara is a Japanese film director. His film '' First Love'' was the 3rd Best Film at the 22nd Yokohama Film Festival. Filmography * ''Running High'' (1989) * ''Work on the Grass'' (1993) * ''One More Time, One More Chance'' (1996) * ''Aku no hana'' ( ...

* Makoto Shinozaki * Akihiko Shiota *

Chūsei Sone was a Japanese film director known for his stylish and popular ''Roman Porno'' films for Nikkatsu, particularly the first two installments of the '' Angel Guts'' series. Despite a somewhat uneven career, many mainstream critics consider Sone th ...

* Masayuki Suo *

Nobuhiro Suwa is a Japanese film director working in Japan and France. His directorial works and screenplays often make use of improvisation techniques. Currently, Suwa is the President of Tokyo Zokei University. Biography Having graduated from Hiroshima ...

* Seijun Suzuki

T

* Yūji Tajiri * Gō Takamine * Lisa Takeba * Tetsuji Takechi * Tetsuya Takehora *

Yōjirō Takita Yōjirō Takita (滝田洋二郎 ''Takita Yōjirō'', born December 4, 1955) is a Japanese filmmaker. Takita received an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for his 2008 drama '' Departures''. It marked the first time a Japanese film won the aw ...

* Yuki Tanada * Eizō Tanaka * Noboru Tanaka * Tomotaka Tasaka *

Shūji Terayama was a Japanese avant-garde poet, dramatist, writer, film director, and photographer. His works range from radio drama, experimental television, underground (''Angura'') theatre, countercultural essays, to Japanese New Wave and "expanded" cinema ...

* Hiroshi Teshigahara * Shirō Toyoda *

Toshiaki Toyoda is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Career Born in Osaka Prefecture, Toyoda was first a prodigy in the game of shogi or Japanese chess. He attended the Japan Shogi Association's apprenticeship (Shōreikai) from age 9 with the aim of be ...

* Eiji Tsuburaya * Yutaka Tsuchiya * Shinya Tsukamoto

U

* Kenji Uchida * Tomu Uchida *

Toshiya Ueno (2 October 1963 – 15 April 2013) was a Japanese film director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He is one of the ''pink film'' directors known collectively as the , a group which comprises Ueno, Mitsuru Meike, Yūji Tajiri, Shinji Im ...

* Kirio Urayama *

Kiyohiko Ushihara was a Japanese film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role i ...

W

* Kōji Wakamatsu *

Mamoru Watanabe was a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor, known for his work in the ''pink film'' genre. Along with directors Genji Nakamura and Banmei Takahashi, Watanabe was known as one of the "Three Pillars of Pink". Life and career Early life ...

Y

Takeshi Yagi is a Japanese TV director/producer whose credits include Tsuburaya Productions' popular Ultra Series. Personal history Born in 1967, Yagi grew up during the boom of tokusatsu television shows in Japan. In the mid-1990s, he joined Tsuburaya Pr ...

* Yamada Yoji *

Kazuhiko Yamaguchi is a Japanese film director. Career Born in Nagano Prefecture, Yamaguchi graduated from Waseda University and began working at the Tōei studios in Kyoto. He directed a number of action movie series in the 1970s and has also helmed many TV mo ...

* Masashi Yamamoto * Satsuo Yamamoto * Sadao Yamanaka * Mitsuo Yanagimachi * Keisuke Yoshida * Kōta Yoshida * Isao Yukisada * Yumi Yoshiyuki

Z

Takahisa Zeze is a Japanese film director and screenwriter first known for his soft-core pornographic ''pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Kazuhiro Sano, Toshiki Satō, and Hisayasu Sato, he is known as one of the . In recent years, he ...

External links

Japanese Documentary Retrospective at the Punto de Vista Documentary Film Festival of Navarra, Spain
{{Asian film directors

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Film directors