Kore-eda and Kokuho producer map Japanese cinema’s global rise

By Grace Kim

On Tuesday, Kore-eda Hirokazu said: “In recent years, I’ve been hearing people at international film festivals say, ‘Japanese films are really interesting right now.’ That’s a sentiment we didn’t hear 10 years ago.”

He made the remark at a packed Kering Women in Motion talk at Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills. The event, an allied program of the Tokyo International Film Festival, addressed Japanese cinema’s present and future alongside diversity and inclusion in the industry.

Director Kore-eda, known for “Shoplifters,” opened with brief remarks. The panel brought together:

• Arashi singer and actor Ninomiya Kazunari.
• Murata Chieko, producer of the 2025 kabuki-themed drama “Kokuho.”
• Amy Homma, director and president of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures and Academy Collection.

Journalist Tatsuta Atsuko served as facilitator. The participants discussed how Japanese films reach overseas audiences and how cultural differences shape the people who make and exhibit them.

Kore-eda tied the change to specific younger directors:

“Led by Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Fukada Koji, directors in their 20s and 30s have been taking their works overseas, and through their accumulated efforts and recognition, the attention given to Japanese films has been increasing.”

“How to pass this on to the next generation and spread it further is a challenge for the older generation, and I think it’s also very important for film fans who are exposed to these works.”

In Kore-eda’s account, international attention was cumulative rather than spontaneous. Younger directors took their work abroad, gained recognition, and widened interest in Japanese cinema. The unresolved task was continuity: passing that momentum to another generation without weakening its international force.

Amy Homma framed pluralism through her own identity. She said:

“I’m a Japanese-American woman and I’m a Jewish American woman – and both of those cultures and ethnicities carry deeply long lineages of history. I’m very lucky to have been raised with the awareness that multiple truths can exist at the same time.”

National cinemas also exist in parallel, Homma said, but “that does not make one more important or one more harder than the other.” She added: “American film history is just as important as Japanese film history and just as important as French film history.”

Homma connected that broad view of cinema to cultural understanding. By experiencing different types of film, she said:

“We allow ourselves to learn so much more about a lived experience that’s outside of our own, because there’s no better way to develop empathy to develop cultural understanding than through watching a movie.”

Ninomiya Kazunari first came to international attention for his starring role in Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning World War II drama “Letters from Iwo Jima.” Working on an international production “presented both differences and learning opportunities for me as an actor,” he said.

One difference was the staff’s tendency “to ask more questions” than they would on a Japanese set. “They ask things like, ‘What is this?’ or ‘How do you use this?’” Ninomiya said. Those questions opened a conversation leading to solutions, rather than a top-down explanation that might result in confusion.

Murata Chieko produced the 2025 smash-hit kabuki-themed drama “Kokuho,” which received rave reviews abroad and was nominated for a Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar. She set an audience test: “create something that will move as many people as possible, make as many people laugh as possible, and make as many people cry as possible.”

Murata tied that reach to tolerance of varying cultural perspectives. Without it, she warned: “The worst case is a world in which that becomes difficult.” Her formulation makes audience size and cultural plurality dependent on each other, rather than treating them as competing goals.

As museum director in charge of teams doing everything from research to marketing, Homma said: “It’s always about who the best person would be.” She applied that principle to inclusion, wanting “for many people to bring their own cultural differences or their own unique qualities and have that be seen as a strength. I don’t want anyone to shy or hide their individualism.”

She defined diversity “across gender expression, across ethnicity and across ages,” she said, “is what makes for a great team,” adding, “It’s about plural thinking, not individual thinking.” In her formulation, plural thinking means making room for several perspectives rather than privileging one individual worldview.

What does this change for film audiences?

For film audiences, the immediate change is wider access to Japanese work through overseas festivals and productions. Kore-eda said visibility has increased; his harder task is passing it to the next generation and spreading it further.

His panel offers three mechanisms. Ninomiya described questions instead of top-down explanation; Murata described emotional reach without surrendering differing perspectives; Homma made pluralism an institutional choice.

The next test is whether the film industry can turn this moment into durable support for another generation. It must do so without making cultural difference the problem Homma and Murata said it must not become.