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In 1986, for the first time in 75 years, the "Chironnup Kamuy Iomante (the sending off of the spirit of the fox)" was held at Bihoro Pass, in Hokkaido. According to the Ainu's traditional beliefs, animals are "gods" called "Kamuy" who live in the "land of gods" ("Kamuimosiri"), but sometimes they come to the "land of humans" ("Ainumosiri"), to offer their meat and furs as gifts. The Ainu take care of them, and they eventually hold an "Iomante (spirit sending)". In this ceremony, people offer prayers, sing songs, and dance, and send the animal back to the "land of the gods" with food and souvenirs.

Taking his camera and microphone to the heart of the megalopolis of Japan, the director combines scenes of the Tokyo with on-screen commentary and questions to articulate his vision of a city or to ask questions about it in spite of an audience which may think the questions are already answered and need not be asked or commented on.

Haneda employed various cinematic and scientific technic to explore the world of cabbage butterfly, and the result was a completely new type of educational film.

"The majority of my 8-mm works were made for the three-minute "Personal Focus" film special put on in Fukuoka. This film is an animation of photographs I had taken on a regular basis as a sort of diary, and was made to have a rough feel to it." - Takashi Ito

Concert by the Japanese band Sukekiyo played 2016. 17 July at the Chofu City Green Hall.

After her mother’s death, Nao retreats to a Zen temple to wrestle with grief. Blending family archives, hand-drawn animation and performance art, this seductively meditative documentary explores suffering, and the gentle art of transcending it.

SHO made this movie with the strong desire to push the backs of people who are fighting for some goals and dreams, and those who are in a harsh environment or in adversity.

Three-part documentary on the occupation of the West Bank: 1) Hebron; 2) The Jordan Valley; 3) Southern Hebron

In an intimate and exciting journey to the root, the film follows a family based in Okinawa, Japan, that visits Taiwan to rediscover their family origins.

The award-winning short Halmoni (2003 / 10min), about the life of her Korean grandma who migrated to Japan at the age of three.

Behind game titles such as “D” or “Enemy Zero”, Kenji Eno is a creator who was one step ahead in pushing the boundaries of storytelling in the game medium, influencing many people throughout his career. Commemorating the 10 years since his sudden passing in 2013, we will premiere a documentary gathering testimonials from people who were close to him, starting with his wife Yuka Iino, creators such as Hideo Kojima, Fumito Ueda and artists such as Pierre Taki or Tadanobu Asano.

Sho Watanabe, 77, has worked as a lighting technician for many years, longing to work in the film industry. However, when his wife, Tomiko, suddenly developed Alzheimer's disease, he took a video and 16mm camera and began documenting her and the people around her. This film is the result of compiling and editing the vast amount of film he had accumulated in this way.

Ryuichi Sakamoto sadly passed away at the age of 71 on March 28, 2023. His music never stops and continues to leave a lasting impression on people living in the present. Playing the Orchestra 2013" was the first time in 16 years that Ryuichi Sakamoto performed with a full orchestra in Japan and created a sensation. This film is an updated version of the 2014 Tokyo performance, which he conducted himself. In this film, Sakamoto conducts all the pieces while playing the piano, The film features Sakamoto playing the piano and conducting all the pieces, and a variety of music from YMO's masterpieces such as "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" and "The Last Emperor" to his own film music, all performed by the magnificent Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.

This documentary was filmed in Ishinomaki, a city with a population of about 170,000 in Miyagi Prefecture, located on the Pacific coast in northeast Japan. The mega earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, 2011 devastated the city leaving 3,943 people dead or missing. Among them, 182 were elementary school children. With an earthquake and tsunami that no one had experienced, at that time, how did those at the school judge, handle, and act on the situation? What did the teachers do? How did the children react? What did the parents and family members of the children do? 37 people affiliated with Kadonowaki Elementary School in Ishinomaki were interviewed about the events of the day of March 11 from 2:46 to the following morning.

A snowy landscape flowing outside the Shinkansen window. Miyu is heading to Nagoya to undergo her long-time dream of gender reassignment surgery. Miyu is a third-year student in the fashion design department. When she graduated, she aspired to go out into society as a woman both physically and mentally. Her dream will come true soon. A cafe bar in Kobe half a year ago. She is still chatting with her friends today. Her junior, Nao, and Mimu, who attends another university, are both transgender. “After all, love ends in sex, right? But we can’t have sex…

This is Amsterdam, the city of pleasure. Where there's a front, there's also a back. This documentary captures the bizarre adventures of Yuji Kitano and his undergarment-clad companion, Tsubaki, over roughly one month, primarily in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Neither husband and wife nor lovers, this odd couple infiltrates various hair-raising danger zones in a foreign land, gets involved with shady characters, and somehow ends up attending secret parties... 90 minutes of cold sweat, laughter, and shock.

A Burning Star depicts the physicality of destruction and disappearance through images of the Japanese filmmaker's father who dies and is cremated. Maintaining a solid rhythm and perspective, this film highlights the meaning and importance of "viewing" and "filming" in documentary.

Haneda’s debut as full director, made after four years spent as an assistant, is set in a farming village in Shiga Prefecture (east of Kyoto). The film depicts the traditional architecture, lifestyles and customs of the village, its agricultural and domestic labour, but its central focus, as with many of Iwanami’s early films, is on education.

Koji Shiraishi documents the editing and production of his short film "Koji Shiraishi's Declaration of World Domination". Included in the "Textbook of Fake Documentary" DVD.

At the beginning of the 1970s, in the village of Rokkasho situated at the base of the Shimokita peninsula, the prospect of sudden development and industrialization was raised. 10 years later it was decided that a giant petrochemical complex would be built, so the local people sold their land and left. Yet even now people continue to live in this "island on the mainland;" they continue to battle the forces of nature in this inhospitable climate that always leaves them with an insufficient harvest. In actuality, many of the old people who continue to work in agriculture or the fishing industry only settled here after World War II. The occurrence of both the "dollar shock" and the "oil shock" abruptly cut back the national development plans, ... Then, in 1984, almost as if it had been planned from the beginning, it was decided that a nuclear reprocessing facility would be built at Rokkasho. In consequence, the opposition movement quietly began to reform.

Bookended by 8mm footage of a circling bird of prey, most of the film surveys Seven Hells’ landscape — spring water boils, mud pool bubbles rise and rupture, thick curtains of steam briefly part to reveal hints of buildings, walls and walkways.

Part of the documentary project that each company competed on the theme of the Constitution of Japan.With the keyword "oblivion," Koreeda explores how "Article 9 of the Constitution renounces war" has been involved in people's inner world, turning the camera around in various places, including his father's hometown, Taiwan.It is a unique work that reflects the personal history deeply.

A non-narrative tribute to the seaside town of Onomichi, where Obayashi grew up and where most of these films were made.

In this tape, Ko Nakajima and Video Earth Tokyo interview a homeless man. The subject is initially angry and frustrated, but gradually opens up and shares stories about his life. Under A Bridge was later broadcast on cable television.

A documentary style animation of an apiarist at work in combination with scenes of a seaside village, overlapped with images of a boy trying to escape from fetters.

Beautiful woman descending! Sora Tsukino! Last time she tried many things in the summer sea, and this time she is trying her best to be cute at full throttle! Please enjoy her outstanding style!

Commissioned by the Tokyo National Museum, this film, regarded in some quarters as the masterpiece of Haneda’s Iwanami period, is one of several in which she documented Japan’s ancient and classical artistic treasures. Here she focuses on the Tokyo National Museum’s collection of art from the earliest eras of Japan’s (pre)history, including earthenware pottery and the striking terracotta figurines known as haniwa.

Filmed soon after the end of the Allied occupation, this documentary is an extremely valuable record of the production and nationwide tour of “The Hiroshima Panels” at the time.

Documentary on the relationship between human beings and nature

Paths is a vibrant trip across the globe, painting an atypical portrait of humanity.

The documentary follows RADWIMPS on their long tour from last year, which saw them play 20 shows in 11 cities across Japan. It includes rehearsal and backstage footage, as well as the band interacting with the artists that joined them across the 2019 tour. The DVD and Blu-ray will feature 23 songs which includes the guest performance from Aimyon for Nakidashisodayo, a song by RADWIMPS which she features on. It also includes a documentary of the tour, as well as guest appearances from artists who joined the band on stage including Miyachi, Titan Zombies, Taka from ONE OK ROCK, and Toko Miura. RADWIMPS are set to embark on an all-new tour starting this March. Titled “KONNICHIWA NIPPON TOUR 2020,” it will take them to seven cities in Japan for 10 showsーincluding four dome venues.

1962 Japanese documentary

Ishikawa Bunyo was born in Okinawa in 1938, reported on the Vietnam War from 1964, and continued to document Okinawa after his return to Japan. This film travels with Bunyo, now 75 years old, through Vietnam and Okinawa, looking back at his footsteps and listening to his thoughts on war and peace as he talks about them.

Sayonara, Goto-san. is a recording of Midori's final show at Tokyo LIQUIDROOM on December 30, 2010, released on DVD on April 6, 2011.

Zen priest Ittetsu Nemoto lost an uncle and two friends to suicide. It left him with deep emotional scars, and he decided to start an online support group for people with suicidal thoughts. Nowadays, he receives them in person at his temple... Each painful story paints an intriguing picture of what life on the edge can look like. Together, the portraits form a quiet plea for a broader view on the treatment of suicidal behavior.

One of the most popular forms of entertainment in contemporary japan is the "manga". The work is usually translated as "comics" in English, but mangas are not limited to the publishing industry alone. In fact, this art form has extended its popularity into almost every communication media such as movies, records, television, ect.

"Sex in a typhoon", a depressed pianist AV actress Nana Honda and Katsuyuki Hirano.

This celebrated documentary, filmed in colour, depicts one of the most famous of all Japanese temples. Horyu-ji, in the small town of Ikaruga outside Japan’s ancient capital of Nara, was one of the first Buddhist places of worship established in Japan, and contains the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world, dating from the seventh century.

Joso (josō 女装) is a film collaboration combining anthropology and art film to explore the nature of male reaction and sentiment on the cusp of transformation in contemporary Japan.

A promotional movie that was shown to Kirin Brewery factory visitors at the time. Japanese history and family memories intertwine with a musical interlude that introduces song-by-song the industrial brewing process by a cute "Beer Spirit".

The last live performance of Number Girl's last tour, recorded on November 30, 2002 at Sapporo Penny Rain.

A hard and unsparing look at the work of wrestler KASAI Jun, nicknamed Crazy Monkey, who competes mostly in so-called death matches, a brutal style of wrestling focused on bodily harm. At times fun and exciting, at other times brutal and melancholy, the film shines a light on a subculture that has long remained in the shadows.

After the untimely death of his 35-year old brother, an artist explores the questions that surfaced from grief by painting 365 paintings and to spur conversation in culture.

Rather than following a narrative or covering large events, this documentary goes through the entire English alphabet with a different aspect of AKB48 being covered for each letter (eg. S for Shake Hands).

The filmmaker’s own paternal and maternal grandmothers’ stories are compiled into texts and read aloud by two women. This film ventures to convey the memories of two grandmothers from two different families, through the bodies of others.

This is a story about a Japanese photographer and his journey to discover his roots. As a child, his name was “Tooi”. Born and raised in Thailand, he was suddenly taken to Japan when he has eight years old and became Japanese with the name, “Masato”. The reason was his father had been a “Zanryu Nihonhei”. “Zanryu Nihonhei” were Japanese soldiers who didn’t or couldn’t return to Japan after the war’s end for various reasons. A big reason was Japan’s defeat. It’s believed there were 10,000 across Asia and the former Soviet Union, with 1,000 in Thailand alone. The exact number remains unclear. His father was also among them. When “Masato” was 28, he travelled back to Thailand where he was born. And he remembers his past and words.

Documentary about Japanese pearl fishers.

"Narita: The Peasants of the Second Fortress" (1971) chronicles a decisive phase in the struggle against the construction of the Narita International Airport, as farmers in Sanrizuka adopted new defensive tactics, including the construction of fortified towers and underground shelters. As police forces moved to dismantle these structures, confrontations intensified. The film combines scenes of direct conflict with extended conversations between Ogawa and the farmers, documenting both the physical resistance and the sustained community organizing that defined this stage of the protest.

In 1954, the United States tested 6 hydrogen bombs on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean. Numerous Japanese fishing boats were operating in surrounding waters, and their crews were exposed to radioactive fallout. But the Japanese government has acknowledged the cases of just 23 crewmembers. Now, scientists from Hiroshima have shed light on facts that had been buried for 60 years.

A short documentary film about the making of Masaaki Yuasa's "Kick-Heart."

1957 documentary covering the highly publicized wrestling match between Japanese-Korean Rikidozan versus Lou Thesz.

A diary film about Kawase's relationship with her grandma and her search for her father, whom she has not seen since her parents divorced during her early childhood.