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Clearly, the comfort woman controversy is far from resolved - and that explains why Zhongyi Ban has now completed his third documentary on the subject. "Give Me the Sun" introduces us to a group of seven aging Chinese women whose bodies and minds were irrevocably scarred by the unspeakable brutality inflicted on them during World War II, when they were being gang-raped for months until their families ransomed them. Some were lured into sexual slavery by locals working for the Japanese Army, who promised them work in factories or hospitals; others were simply abducted and enslaved in the nearest comfort stations. Chinese scholars have estimated that close to 100,000 women were forcibly taken from their homes during the war, although lack of official documentation has made it difficult for historians to reach an agreement on the exact figure.

Documentary filmed by young directors in Japan that was shaken by the US-Japan security pact struggles and student disputes. An illusionary image comes back to life for the first time in 34 years. (Produced in 1968 but unreleased until 2002).

In the world of computer games, there are players earning fight money as a PRO. They are sponsored by digital tool companies or beverage companies, and tour around the world to earn money in tournaments. This film goes over the days of Pro Gamers in Japan, USA, France and Taiwan.

There are as many births and child delivery stories as there are people. Despite all the progress of medicine and science, it still happens that lives get lost during childbirth. On such a daily and common matter, we want to interview mothers on their intimate experience of giving birth, and adapt that material into animation to have it seen by audiences of all generations. This is a documentary animation on the very beginning and the mystery of life, told from the point of view of mothers.

Cameraman Yonesaku Kobayashi (1905-2005) is a pioneer of scientific films of Japan. He and producer Sozo Okada made many scientific educational films, and in 60's - 70's, many avant-garde composers composed music for these films.

The first installment in the “Neko no rakuen" series. A warm-hearted, high-quality documentary depicting the cats of a dream destination that every cat lover would like to visit at least once: a paradise floating in the Greek Aegean Sea. The beautiful scenery and the cats’ lively, unguarded daily lives are sure to gently soothe your heart.

First held in 1975, Comiket has long shaped Japan's creative culture from manga and anime to games and cosplay. The committee, exhibitors, volunteers, fans, and cosplayers share their devotion to it.

In December 1969, the band Zuno Keisatsu (The Brain Police) was formed, with Panta and Toshi as its core members. The camera follows them for three years leading up to the band’s reunion in 2008.

Since the seventh century AD, Sado has been called the "island of exile". Unwelcomed people by the shogunate such as homeless, artists and politicians were exiled, some of them even put to forced labour in the mines. Their spirits, trapped in the depths of the earth, will never see the sky again.

An unusual, conceptual documentary that combines the director’s fascination with fungi with modern, audiovisual technologies. Using photogrammetry from hundreds of images, the assembled 3D models document the maturation of four domestically grown species of fungi, their incredibly fast growth, and also their sculptural and artistic qualities.

After working as a reporter and an assistant at a radio station, Watanabe Yoshimitsu, former leader of the bosozoku gang Black Emperor, returned to his old stomping grounds and began to make a film about bosozoku. At the time, he was 21. The teenage members of the bosozoku group, also known as " Thunder " would get into their revamped motorbikes and cars and race around the city. With the police as their enemies, they ran from patrol cars and did other defiant acts. They would put on outlandish clothing and, as a result of fights with rival groups, were very loyal to other members of their own gang. Every Saturday, they would cruise around, vanish and reappear throughout the entire night with no particular goal. However on 1 December 1978, because of provisions in the new highway transport law, the end was at hand for their " season of running wild. " The film shows them simply continuing to run wild on this last night before the law is to take effect.

A lengthy discussion on the film's story, the villain, themes, getting the picture off the ground, the script, the shoot, visual effects, and much more. The piece includes making-of footage from the shoot as well as filmmaker interviews.

The inhabitants of Cape Muroto in Kochi Prefecture depend on fishing for their living, but have no fishing port in their village and so use the port of Uraga in Kanagawa Prefecture as their main port. 22 crew members in a wooden boat of less than 100t fish for tuna in rough seas, 4,500 miles away from home near Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, where hydrogen bomb experiments are being carried out. The film focuses on an 18-year-old trainee and his labors aboard the fishing boat for two months, precisely reflecting the fisherman’s daily life.

Conversation between director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, recorded in 2022.

Siblings Aru, age 3, and Kino, age 1, have 3 parents: father Fumino, who is transgender; mother Honoyo, Fumino's partner who gave birth to the children; and father Gon, a close gay friend who donated his sperm. The 3 are now raising their children together, struggling repeatedly to find their own way of being a family. This program covers their first 3 years of parenting. And it asks an important question: What does it take to be a family?

When Kacchi came back home for summer break from abroad, she came out to her family as a homosexual. Her mother and father couldn't take it and answered in negative. Though Kacchi had a depression for their reactions, she decided to face her family again throughout a filmmaking about the 'coming-out'.

Every drift fans knows that despite the growing popularity of drift-racing, the heart of the ride will always be the Touge (mountain pass), and in this release Nomuken leads the JDM Option team through the very origins of Japanese drifting. As an added bonus, the JDM Option crew also shares a mysterious video sent in by an unidentified street racer who rockets along the Tomei Expressway at speeds in excess of 300km/h.

In 2005, sixty years after the end of World War II, the conservative Japanese government is pressing ahead with plans to revise the nation's constitution and jettison its no-war clause, Article 9. This documentary places the ongoing debate over the constitution in an international context:

NOWHERE TO GO is the portrait of Hisato YOSHIMURA, a young musician on the streets of Tokyo's Shibuya ward. What could have moved this young woman to be a street performer, what are her dreams? After initial success, Hisato is diagnosed with schizophrenia and has to return to her family home. 8 years later, the film crew decides to meet her again.

When filmmaker Yoshifumi Tsubota learns about his slightly autistic uncle who lives alone, he decides to visit him. Drawn to his uncle’s unique personality, he begins to roll his camera as he visits him over the years. Tsubota himself had been diagnosed with a developmental disability and so understanding his uncle is also an act of understanding himself. Through intimate and personal footage, this charming film is gem of a documentary that also highlights contemporary social issues surrounding aging and social care for the disabled.

A feature-length documentary that witnesses twenty-seven survivors of the Battle of Okinawa break their silence to testify the truth about the tragedy of “gyokusai,” forced group suicide, of Korean “military laborers” and “comfort women” brought from Korea. Just how were Okinawa citizens pressured and forced to commit group suicide in the final hours of the Pacific War, and what led to the near complete destruction of Korean military laborers and comfort women? Twenty years in the making since 'Song of Ariran -voices from Okinawa' (1991), Park Soo-nam’s third documentary returns to the subject of Korean military laborers and comfort women in Okinawa.

First graders in a Tokyo public elementary school are presented with a challenge for the final semester: performing "Ode to Joy" at the ceremony for the new incoming first graders. Ayame, who often struggles to keep up with the group, is determined to play a major part — the big drum.

In 2017, Japanese rock band Yogee New Waves plays a solo concert at the LIQUIDROOM in Tokyo, Japan.

In the 1990s, fearing persecution from the Turkish government, about 2,000 Kurdish refugees of Turkish nationality came to settle in a suburb of Tokyo. Here live Ohzan (18), Ramazan (19) and Memet (38). This documentary focuses on these three young Kurds in Japan.

Komaba Dormitory at the University of Tokyo was closed down after a bitter dispute between the students and the university. This film collage tells the story of the two years leading up to the actual demolition of Komaba Dormitory.

Propaganda documentary about the fall of Nanking. Considered for a long time as a lost film, it was discovered in Beijing, China, in the year 1995.

Shinsuke Ogawa documentary about the life of the farmers in Heta Village opposing their resettlement due to the construction of Narita Airport.

Appearing in unexpected places and at unexpected moments, the Seppuku Pistols are a taiko music group that carry on the traditions of Japan's Edo era. In this in this road movie documentary, the guerrilla-style group perform throughout Japan and make it all the way to New York City.

There is a small island where agriculture arrived 1,000 years ago when the inhabitants rescued people from a wrecked ship. The island became prosperous and the culture of the island has been handed down from generation to generation. Iwai Island, Kaminoseki City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The 500 inhabitants of this island in the Seto Inland Sea help each other to survive the harsh natural environment. Water is limited on this rocky island, which often experiences typhoons. The people, however, have flourished by using the sea's resources and cultivating the rocky mountains. You can see clearly in this island that human activities are part of nature’s cycles. In 1982, a nuclear power plant construction project in Tanoura, on the opposite shore about 3.5km from Iwai Island, was proposed. The people here have been opposing to the project.

Based on Akutagawa Ryunosuke's short story The Devil and Tobacco (1916), the film introduces a curious account of the devil's introduction to Japan with St. Xavier in 1549, and how the devil transformed himself into an octopus (or devil fish) to eventually oppress Japanese Christians in the 17th century.

The tour "Tour 2021‘Hidden Place’" had been postponed due to COVID19, and the live video of two songs from the Tokyo show held at USEN STUDIO COAST on September 24 has been released.

85 years old and never married, Shizu has spent the past 3 decades living in one "Danchi" - the Japanese word for public housing - and filling it with the lifetime of souvenirs that have always kept her company. When the danchi is scheduled for demolition, Shizu and neighbors must say goodbye to their homes, and move into newer danchi that are too small to hold all of Shizu's mementos. This intimate documentary captures Shizu's sense of humor, and profound nostalgia, as she sorts through relics of her past, and chooses which memories she must fit into her new home, and which ones she can let go of.

Documentary on pioneer Japanese feminist Hiratsuka Raicho

To mark the 30th anniversary of the ‘Phoenix Concert’ at Tokyo Dome, a deluxe 4-disc box set is now available! The audio on the DVDs and CDs has been remastered, and the bonus DVD features multi-angle footage of the performances, an extended version of the mini-documentary ‘The Road to Tokyo Dome’, and interviews with those involved in the Tokyo Dome concert. This is the long-awaited deluxe edition of the ‘Phoenix Concert’, a gift for all fans of Hibari Misora and Japanese pop music.

Feature-film directorial debut by Nobutomo Naoko, who has made numerous TV documentaries based on her personal experiences, including her own struggles with breast cancer. The film patiently captures her 95-year-old father caring for her senile mother as seen from her perspective as their daughter.

Kana Nishino’s second DVD featuring an unplugged live, a documentary and an interviews. This is meant to run as a film with the unplugged live, interviews, and documentary all playing together intertwining.

Eight years after the shocking documentaries A and A2, which examined the Aum Shinrikyo affair that shook Japan, director Tatsuya Mori finally returned to filmmaking. Documentaries Tell Lies, broadcast on the TV Tokyo network in 2006, was an extraordinarily provocative work that challenged conventional assumptions about television. Watch it and read it, and the way you view television may never be the same.

In 1991, the issue of “comfort women” was raised for the first time through the testimony of the late Kim Hak-sun. One of the first reporters in Japan to write an article about her testimony was Uemura Takashi of The Asahi Shimbun. Since the publication of his article, Uemura has been subjected to blatant attacks from the far-right, including threats on his family’s life, and the issue is still ongoing in 2021. Based on Uemura's defamation lawsuit that began in 2015, TARGET details why he had to be someone's “target.”

Mirazur, Argentine-born chef Mauro Colagreco's 3 Michelin starred restaurant on France's Mediterranean coast, was awarded Best Restaurant in the World on the eve of the pandemic. Not content to rest on their laurels, Colagreco and his diverse team soldiered on through the global tragedy of the lockdown, boldly reimagining the restaurant's concept and menu to reflect their dedication to biodynamic principles. Mirazur re-emerged with a new and enthusiastic approach: the Moon Menu.

Six months after the liberation of Vietnam, a ship called the Thong Nhat (Unification) arrives at Saigon Port. People return to their hometowns from North Vietnam for the first time in 20 years.

Following the release of the album Mass, the GazettE toured from 2022 to 2023. This release records the band's final performance of the MASS tour at Nippon Budokan on July 15, 2023.

This rural documentary features poet Jin Makabe. Thoughts about agriculture, memories, landscapes.

The follow-up film to “Barstow, California” takes us to the mountains of Miyama, a remote forest and tourist area north of Kyoto. Uwe Walter, a shakuhachi player from Germany, lives there with his wife Mitsuyo for 30 years. Together with the villagers he prepares the annual Gion Festival. On the eve of the festival, the village representatives tell him that his self-built studio is to be demolished. This brings back memories for him of earlier times and his first steps as a Nō actor. In the manner of a fresco, the film interweaves rural depictions of everyday life with the story of its German protagonist. In the village community with its togetherness of generations, Uwe shares life with his neighbours, with farmers, hunters, woodsmen, poultry farmers and anglers, tills his kitchen garden, and like other tradition-conscious villagers, he also grows his rice. The film shows them in a harsh mountain landscape between the rainy season and the first snow.

V6 Live Tour 2007 Voyager -Boku to Bokura No Ashita e-

From a vast record of 750 days, 5000 hours, Official Film of the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 SIDE A and SIDE B are the official documentaries by Naomi Kawase capturing not only the athletes gathered from all over the world, but also their families, people involved in the Games, volunteers, medical personnel, and protesters shouting for the cancellation of the Olympics.

For over five decades, a beloved Tokyo suburban pool affectionately called “the ocean” offered health, joy, and belonging to elderly swimmers, families, and the local gay community. But when urban development forces its demolition, a wave of grief sweeps through those who called it home. Through powerful, intimate moments, this deeply human story explores loss not tied to death, but to place, memory, and identity. Guided by the five stages of grief, director Ota invites us to reflect on what it means to say goodbye not just to a building, but to a vital space of connection, healing, and shared life.

Pinku from 1971

Documentary on baseball player Shigeo Nagashima

Kao Chin Su-mei, a former actress and now a legislator in the Taiwan Legislative Yuan (the legislative assembly), is from the Tayal tribe, one of the aboriginal peoples of Taiwan. Together with both the Taiwan Aborigine Workgroup, consisting of all the tribes including the Han people, and the aboriginal music group Feijuyuenbao Synectics, she finds the courage to fight for the return of their ancestors’ souls from Japan. Their appeal is unambiguous: “We cannot bear it that our ancestors’ souls are still in Japan. This is because we are not Japanese.”

A documentary about French illustrator Georges Bigot, who lived in Japan for 17 years and left behind many drawings depicting life and social conditions in the Meiji period.

A documentary on the suicide of manga author Chiyomi Hashiguchi, commonly known as Nekojiru.

The secret of the Himalayas

Where TOBE artists that drew 220,000 fans last year will unite again to perform at Tokyo Dome and Kyocera Dome Osaka.

Documentary on Chua Swee­-Lin, a Malaysian exchange student who was threatened with deportation over his protest against the separation and inde­pendence of Singapore.