List of foreign films and TV series set in Japan

The following is a list of foreign films and television series set in Japan. Japan has provided an exotic and cosmopolitan backdrop to many international films set partially, mostly or entirely in Japan. A common theme of western films set in Japan is the differences between Japanese and Western culture and how the characters cope with their new surroundings.

Film

Pre-1940

The Secret Game (1917) — directed by William C. de Mille, starring Sessue Hayakawa
The Sea Wolf (1930) — directed by Alfred Santell, starring Milton Sills
Yoshiwara (1937) — directed by Max Ophüls

1940–1949

Bombardier (1943) — directed by Richard Wallace, starring Pat O'Brien
Jack London (1943) — directed by Alfred Santell, starring Michael O'Shea
Destination Tokyo (1943) — directed by Delmer Daves, starring Cary Grant and John Garfield
Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944) — directed by Mervyn LeRoy, starring Van Johnson and Robert Walker
Blood on the Sun (1945) — directed by Frank Lloyd, starring James Cagney and Sylvia Sidney
Sands of Iwo Jima (1949) — directed by Allan Dwan, starring John Wayne and John Agar
Tokyo Joe (1949) — directed by Stuart Heisler, starring Humphrey Bogart and Alexander Knox

1950–1959

Tokyo File 212 (1951) — directed by Dorrell McGowan and Stuart E. McGowan
Oriental Evil (1951) — directed by George P. Breakston
Geisha Girl (1952) — directed by George Breakston and C. Ray Stahl, starring Steve Forrest
Back at the Front (1952) — directed by George Sherman, starring Tom Ewell and Harvey Lembeck
House of Bamboo (1955) — directed by Samuel Fuller, starring Robert Ryan and Robert Stack
Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) — directed by Michael Anderson, starring David Niven and Cantinflas
Navy Wife (1956) — directed by Edward Bernds
The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) — directed by Daniel Mann, starring Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford
Escapade in Japan (1957) — directed by Arthur Lubin, starring Cameron Mitchell and Jon Provost
Stopover Tokyo (1957) — directed by Richard L. Breen, starring Robert Wagner and Joan Collins
Sayonara (1957) — directed by Joshua Logan, starring Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka
Typhoon Over Nagasaki (1957) — directed by Yves Ciampi, starring Jean Marais and Danielle Darrieux
Joe Butterfly (1957) — directed by Jesse Hibbs, starring Audie Murphy and Burgess Meredith
The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) — directed by John Huston, starring John Wayne and Eiko Ando
The Geisha Boy (1958) — directed by Frank Tashlin, starring Jerry Lewis and Marie McDonald
Hiroshima mon amour (1959) — directed by Alain Resnais, starring Emmanuelle Riva and Eiji Okada

1960–1969

My Geisha (1962) — directed by Jack Cardiff, starring Shirley MacLaine and Yves Montand
Atout coeur à Tokyo pour OSS 117 (1966) — directed by Michel Boisrond, starring Frederick Stafford and Marina Vlady
Love in Tokyo (1966) — directed by Pramod Chakravorty, starring Joy Mukherjee and Asha Parekh
Walk Don't Run (1966) — directed by Charles Walters, starring Cary Grant, Samantha Eggar, Jim Hutton
You Only Live Twice (1967) — directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Sean Connery and Akiko Wakabayashi
Nobody's Perfect (1968) — directed by Alan Rafkin

1970–1979

Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) — directed by Richard Fleischer and Kinji Fukasaku, starring Martin Balsam and Soh Yamamura
The Yakuza (1974) — directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura
Mastermind (1976) — directed by Alex March, starring Zero Mostel and Keiko Kishi
Seven Nights in Japan (1976) — directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Michael York and Hidemi Aoki
The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978) — directed by John Berry, starring Tony Curtis and Jackie Earle Haley

1980–1989

Bushido Blade (1981) — directed by Shusei Kotani, starring Timothy Patrick Murphy and Frank Converse
The Challenge (1982) — directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Scott Glenn and Toshirō Mifune
Japanil Kalyanaraman (1985) — directed by S.P. Muthuraman, starring Kamal Haasan and Radha
Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) — directed by Paul Schrader, starring Ken Ogata and Masayuki Shionoya
The Karate Kid 2 (1986) — directed by John Avildsen, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita
Gung Ho (1986) — directed by Ron Howard, starring Michael Keaton
Tokyo Pop (1988) — directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui, starring Carrie Hamilton and Diamond Yukai
Kinjite: Forbidden Subjects (1989) — directed by J. Lee Thompson, starring Charles Bronson and Perry Lopez
Black Rain (1989) — directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Douglas and Ken Takakura

1990–1999

American Samurai (1992) — directed by Sam Firstenberg, starring David Bradley and Mark Dacascos
Mr. Baseball (1992) — directed by Fred Schepisi, starring Tom Selleck and Ken Takakura
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) — directed by Stuart Gillard, starring Elias Koteas and Paige Turco
3 Ninjas: Kick Back (1994) — directed by Charles T. Ganganis, starring Victor Wong and Max Elliot Slade
The Hunted (1995) — directed by J.F. Lawton, starring Christopher Lambert
Cold Fever (1995) — directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, starring Masatoshi Nagase and Lili Taylor
Madame Butterfly (1995) — directed by Frédéric Mitterrand, starring Ying Huang and Richard Troxell
Tokyo Eyes (1998) — directed by Jean-Pierre Limosin, starring Shinji Takeda and Hinano Yoshikawa
Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999) — directed by Doris Dörrie, starring Uwe Ochsenknecht

2000–2009

Okinawa Rendez-vous (2000) — directed by Gordon Chan
Enlightenment Guaranteed (2000) — directed by Doris Dörrie, starring Uwe Ochsenknecht and Gustav-Peter Wöhler
Pearl Harbor (2001) — directed by Michael Bay, starring Ben Affleck and Josh Hartnett
Wasabi (2001) — directed by Gérard Krawczyk, starring Jean Reno and Ryōko Hirosue
Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002) — directed by Jay Roach, starring Mike Myers and Beyoncé Knowles
2009: Lost Memories (2002) — directed by Lee Si-myung, starring Jang Dong-gun and Tōru Nakamura
Fear and Trembling (2003) — directed by Alain Corneau, starring Sylvie Testud and Kaori Tsuji
The Last Samurai (2003) — directed by Edward Zwick, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe
Kill Bill vol. 1 (2003) — directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu
Stratosphere Girl (2004) — directed by Matthias X. Oberg, starring Chloé Winkel
The Grudge (2004) — directed by Takashi Shimizu, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Behr
Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) — directed by Rob Marshall, starring Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li
Into the Sun (2005) — directed by Christopher Morrison, starring Steven Seagal and Matt Davis
Initial D (2005) — directed by Andrew Lau and Alan Mak, starring Jay Chou
Babel (2006) — directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal
Flags of Our Fathers (2006) — directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Ryan Phillippe and Jesse Bradford
Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) — directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya
The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) — directed by Justin Lin, starring Lucas Black and Bow Wow
Teen Titans: Trouble in Tokyo (2006)
Hellboy: Sword of Storms (2006) — directed by Phil Weinstein, starring Ron Perlman and Selma Blair
Silk (2007) — directed by François Girard, starring Michael Pitt and Keira Knightley
Monster (2008) — directed by Eric Forsberg, starring Sarah Lieving and Erin Evans
Tokyo! (2008) — directed by Michel Gondry, starring Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho
iGo to Japan (2008) — directed by Steve Hoefer, starring Miranda Cosgrove and Jennette McCurdy
Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) — directed by Chris Nahon, starring Jun Ji-hyun and Allison Miller
The Ramen Girl (2009) — directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, starring Brittany Murphy and Sohee Park
Enter the Void (2009) — directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Nathaniel Brown and Paz de la Huerta
Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009) — directed by Christopher Berkeley

2010–2019

Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) — directed by Paul W. S. Anderson, starring Milla Jovovich
Cars 2 (2011) — directed by John Lasseter, starring Owen Wilson
Tatsumi (2011) — directed by Eric Khoo, starring Tetsuya Bessho and Yoshihiro Tatsumi
Emperor (2012) — directed by Peter Webber, starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones
Skyfall (2012) — directed by Sam Mendes, starring Daniel Craig and Javier Bardem
Karakara (2012) — directed by Claude Gagnon, starring Gabriel Arcand and Youki Kudoh
Like Someone in Love (2012) — directed by Abbas Kiarostami, starring Rin Takanashi
Dick Figures: The Movie (2013) — directed by Ed Skudder and Zack Keller
The Wolverine (2013) — directed by James Mangold, starring Hugh Jackman and Hiroyuki Sanada
Pacific Rim (2013) — directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring Charlie Hunnam and Idris Elba
Rush (2013) — directed by Ron Howard, starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl
Fast & Furious 6 (2013) — directed by Justin Lin, starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker
47 Ronin (2013) — directed by Carl Rinsch, starring Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada
Godzilla (2014) — directed by Gareth Edwards, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe
Big Hero 6 (2014) — directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams, starring Scott Adsit and Ryan Potter
Unbroken (2014) — directed by Angelina Jolie, starring Jack O'Connell and Domhnall Gleeson
Tokyo Fiancée (2014) — directed by Stefan Liberski, starring Pauline Étienne and Taichi Inoue
Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (2014) — directed by David Zellner, starring Rinko Kikuchi
The Sea of Trees (2015) — directed by Gus Van Sant, starring Matthew McConaughey and Ken Watanabe
Mr. Holmes (2015) — directed by Bill Condon, starring Ian McKellen and Laura Linney
Silence (2016) — directed by Martin Scorsese, starring Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) — directed by Mel Gibson, starring Andrew Garfield and Sam Worthington
The Handmaiden (2016) — directed by Park Chan-wook, starring Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri
The Last Princess (2016) — directed by Hur Jin-ho, starring Son Ye-jin and Park Hae-il
The Great Sommer (2016) — directed by Stefan Jäger, starring Mathias Gnädinger and Loïc Sho
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) — directed by Travis Knight, starring Charlize Theron and Art Parkinson
The Lego Ninjago Movie (2017) — directed by Charlie Bean, starring Dave Franco and Michael Peña
Kita Kita (2017) — directed by Sigrid Andrea Bernardo, starring Alessandra De Rossi and Empoy Marquez
Manhunt (2017) — directed by John Woo, starring Zhang Hanyu and Masaharu Fukuyama
Oh Lucy! (2017) — directed by Atsuko Hirayanagi, starring Shinobu Terajima and Kaho Minami
Fat Buddies (2018) — directed by Bao Bei'er, starring Bao Bei'er and Wen Zhang
The Outsider (2018) — directed by Martin Zandvliet, starring Jared Leto and Tadanobu Asano
Pacific Rim Uprising (2018) — directed by Steven S. DeKnight, starring John Boyega and Scott Eastwood
Deadpool 2 (2018) — directed by David Leitch, starring Ryan Reynolds and Josh Brolin
Batman Ninja (2018) — directed by Junpei Mizusaki, starring Kōichi Yamadera
Isle of Dogs (2018) — directed by Wes Anderson, starring Bryan Cranston and Edward Norton
Tomb Raider (2018) — directed by Roar Uthaug, starring Alicia Vikander and Dominic West
Earthquake Bird (2019) — directed by Wash Westmoreland, starring Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough
Spies in Disguise (2019) — directed by Nick Bruno and Troy Quane, starring Will Smith and Tom Holland
Family Romance, LLC (2019) — directed by Werner Herzog, starring Yuichi Ishii
Moonlit Winter (2019) — directed by Lim Dae-hyung, starring Kim Hee-ae and Yūko Nakamura

2020-2029

Fukuoka (2020) — directed by Zhang Lü, starring Yoon Je-moon and Park So-dam
Minamata (2020) — directed by Andrew Levitas, starring Johnny Depp and Hiroyuki Sanada
Lost Girls & Love Hotels (2020) — directed by William Olsson, starring Alexandra Daddario and Takehiro Hira
Detective Chinatown 3 (2020) — directed by Chen Sicheng, starring Wang Baoqiang and Turbo Liu
Enter the Fat Dragon (2020) — directed by Kenji Tanigaki and Aman Chang, starring Donnie Yen
Mortal Kombat (2021) — directed by Simon McQuoid, starring Lewis Tan and Jessica McNamee
Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021) — directed by Robert Schwentke, starring Henry Golding and Andrew Koji
Kate (2021) — directed by Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Woody Harrelson
The Matrix Resurrections (2021) — directed by Lana Wachowski, starring Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss
People Just Do Nothing: Big in Japan (2021) — directed by Jack Clough, starring Alan Mustafa and Hugo Chegwin
Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (2022) — directed by Rob Minkoff, starring Michael Cera and Ricky Gervais
Hunt (2022) — directed by Lee Jung-jae, starring Lee Jung-jae and Jung Woo-sung
Umami (2022) — directed by Slony Sow, starring Gérard Depardieu and Sandrine Bonnaire
Bullet Train (2022) — directed by David Leitch, starring Brad Pitt
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023) — directed by Chad Stahelski, starring Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yen
Perfect Days (2023) — directed by Wim Wenders, starring Koji Yakusho and Tokio Emoto
Tokyo Cowboy (2023) — directed by Marc Marriott, starring Arata Iura and Robin Weigert
When I Met You in Tokyo (2023) — directed by Rado Peru and Rommel Penesa, starring Vilma Santos and Christopher de Leon
Ultraman: Rising (2024) — directed by Shannon Tindle and John Aoshima, starring Christopher Sean
Batman Ninja vs. Yakuza League (2025) — directed by Junpei Mizusaki and Shinji Takagi, starring Kōichi Yamadera
Predator: Killer of Killers (The Sword) (2025) — directed by Dan Trachtenberg, starring Lindsay LaVanchy and Louis Ozawa
Rental Family (2025) — directed by Hikari, starring Brendan Fraser and Takehiro Hira
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (2025) — directed by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han

Television

Shōgun (1980), miniseries
The Ginger Tree (1989), miniseries
Samurai Jack (2001–2004, 2017)
Kappa Mikey (2006–2008)
The Pacific (2010), miniseries
Ninjago (2011–2022)
The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019)
Tokyo Trial (2016), miniseries
Westworld (Season 2) (2018)
Giri/Haji (2019)
Star Wars: Visions Volume I (The Duel) (2021)
Hit-Monkey (2021–2024)
Invasion (2021–present)
Pachinko (2022–2024)
Tokyo Vice (2022–2024)
Ninjago: Dragons Rising (2023–present)
Drops of God (2023–present)
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023–present)
Blue Eye Samurai (2023–present)
Shōgun (2024–present)
Like a Dragon: Yakuza (2024)
Sunny (2024)
Neuromancer (TBA)