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, p ...

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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 ...

* Kyōko Aizome * Masatoshi Akihara * Keita Amemiya * Tetsurō Amino * Hiroshi Ando * Hideaki Anno * Shinji Aoyama * Tarō Araki * Genjiro Arato * 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 Matsubayash ...

* Nobuhiro Doi

F

Kei Fujiwara is a Japanese actress, cinematographer, director and writer. Her first role was in the American film '' The Neptune Factor'', but she is perhaps best known for starring in the Japanese cyberpunk cult film '' Tetsuo: The Iron Man''. More recently ...

* Kinji Fukasaku * Jun Fukuda * Yasuo Furuhata *

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 * 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 ''R ...

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

I

* Jun Ichikawa * Kon Ichikawa * Mako Idemitsu * George Iida *

Takahiko Iimura was a Japanese avant-garde filmmaker and fine artist. He is considered one of the pioneers of experimental and independent filmmaking in Japan. Iimura was born in Tokyo and was a graduate of Keio University. His film ''Onan'' (1963) won the Spe ...

* 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 Kamat ...

* Hiroshi Inagaki * Haruo Inoue * Umetsugu Inoue * 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 * Sōgo Ishii * Takashi Ishii * Teruo Ishii * Yuya Ishii * Kyōhei Ishiguro * Noboru Ishiguro * Hiroshi Ishikawa * Itsumichi Isomura * Juzo Itami * Mansaku Itami * Daisuke Itō * Shunya Itō * Shunji Iwai * Yuki Iwata * Shigeru Izumiya * Kazuyuki Izutsu

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 and Yasu ...

* Teinosuke Kinugasa * Ryuhei Kitamura * Takeshi Kitano * Masaki Kobayashi * Satoru Kobayashi * Takashi Koizumi * Satoshi Kon * Masaru Konuma * Hirokazu Koreeda * Seijirō Kōyama * Kei Kumai * Tatsumi Kumashiro *

Minoru Kunizawa a.k.a. is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor best known for his work in the '' pink film'' genre. Including Yutaka Ikejima, Yumi Yoshiyuki and Tarō Araki, Kunizawa is one of the four top directors of Ōkura Productions (OP) at ...

* Kazuo Kuroki * Akira Kurosawa *

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 * Yasuzo Masumura *

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 Enomo ...

* Mitsuhiro Mihara * Takashi Miike * Takahiro Miki * Kenji Misumi * 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 Kan or KAN may refer to: Places * Kan (river), a tributary of the Yenisey in Russia * Kan District of Iran * Kan, Kyrgyzstan, a village in Batken Region * Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport, Kano, Nigeria, IATA code * Kannapolis (Amtrak s ...

* Ryū Murakami * 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 Na ...

* Shunichi Nagasaki * Masahiko Nagasawa * Sadao Nakajima * 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 mo ...

* Katsumi Nishikawa * Miwa Nishikawa * 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 * 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 Awar ...

* 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 * 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 th ...

* 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 other ...

* Hirohisa Sasaki * Hisayasu Satō * Junya Sato *

Shimako Satō (born in 1964) is a Japanese screenwriter and film director. Career Born in Iwate Prefecture, Satō attended the Asagaya College of Art and Design before studying filmmaking at the London International Film School. Her 1995 film ''Wizard of D ...

* Toshiki Satō * Yūichi Satō *

Kōji Seki ''aka'' (born September 20, 1911, date of death unknown) was a Japanese film director, known for his pioneering work in the ''pink film'' genre. Among the accomplishments of Seki's career: he directed the first ''pink films'' for Kokuei, the o ...

* Kazuyoshi Sekine * 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 ...

* 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'' (1 ...

Makoto Shinozaki (born 1963 in Tokyo) is a Japanese film director. Career Born in Tokyo, Shinozaki attended Rikkyo University, where he studied under Shigehiko Hasumi, made 8mm films, and appeared in the then amateur works of other Rikkyo graduates such as K ...

* Akihiko Shiota * Chūsei Sone * Masayuki Suo * Nobuhiro Suwa * Seijun Suzuki

T

* Yūji Tajiri *

Gō Takamine (sometimes credited as Tsuyoshi Takamine) is an Okinawan director of fiction films, documentaries and experimental films. Born on Ishigaki Island and raised in Naha, Takamine went to university in Kyoto and there began making 8mm films. He made hi ...

Lisa Takeba is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Life and career Lisa Takeba was born in Japan in 1983. She has worked in several media, writing a screenplay for a game for the Nintendo DS, writing novels for mobile devices, and beginning in 2009 ...

* Tetsuji Takechi * Tetsuya Takehora * Yōjirō Takita * Yuki Tanada * Eizō Tanaka * Noboru Tanaka * Tomotaka Tasaka * Shūji Terayama * Hiroshi Teshigahara * Shirō Toyoda * Toshiaki Toyoda * 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

W

* Kōji Wakamatsu * Mamoru Watanabe

Y

* Takeshi Yagi *

Yamada Yoji is a Japanese film director best known for his '' Otoko wa Tsurai yo'' series of films and his Samurai Trilogy (''The Twilight Samurai'', ''The Hidden Blade'' and '' Love and Honor''). Biography He was born in Osaka, but due to his father's job ...

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 m ...

Masashi Yamamoto (born 24 January 1956) is a Japanese film director. Career Born in Ōita Prefecture, Yamamoto attended Meiji University but left early to concentrate on making independent 8mm films. His ''Carnival in the Night'' screened at the 1983 Berlin ...

* Satsuo Yamamoto * Sadao Yamanaka * Mitsuo Yanagimachi * Keisuke Yoshida *

Kōta Yoshida is a Japanese film director. Filmography *'' Yuriko's Aroma'' (2010) *''Ochiki'' (2012) *''Usotsuki Paradox'' (2013) *'' Onna no Ana'' (2014) *''The Torture Club is a Japanese 4-Koma comic strip written by Makoto Fukami and illustrated by ...

* Isao Yukisada * Yumi Yoshiyuki

Z

* Takahisa Zeze

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 north ...

Film directors