As 2024 nears its end and we look back on the year in entertainment, it was clearly one when Japan-related works loomed large on the global market. It is a diverse group of works. Some were made in Japan, while others depicted the nation from a more international perspective, and some were international works featuring Japanese artists.

The trend was ushered in by Yamazaki Takashi’s Godzilla Minus One, which debuted in North America in December 2023. The Japanese production earned international acclaim in the industry, including an Oscar for Best Visual Effects at the March 2024 Academy Awards ceremony. It also became the third highest grossing foreign-language film in American history, and it achieved these results essentially without marketing or advertising.

In the same ceremony of the Academy Awards, The Boy and the Heron, by Miyazaki Hayao, won the award for Best Animated Film and Perfect Days, by Wim Wenders, starring Yakusho Kōji, nominated for Best International Film.

Around the same time, the Shōgun television series, produced through FX, a Disney subsidiary, had a record-breaking debut and achieved the longest viewing time in Disney streaming history. At the fall Emmy Awards, it won a record 18 awards and continues to rack up accolades as we progress through the global awards series.

With this news reverberating throughout Japan, I gained many inquiries from Japanese media thanks to my long years of living in Los Angeles. Nowadays they ask themselves: “Are other people interested in Japanese culture?” The answer, depending on the case, can be “Yes” or “No”. If we take the aforementioned Godzilla Minus One as an example, the answer is much closer to “no. ”

That’s because Godzilla existed long before Yamazaki’s film; This giant lizard is not something that seems to come out of nowhere. Godzilla has been a popular franchise for years, and we can simply say that this is an extraordinary installment that is releasing just as the fan base is growing.

Then, in the case of Ghibli productions, we also deserve to know how the recent agreement with the streaming platform Max, a subsidiary of Warner Brothers Discovery, has taken works beyond theaters throughout the United States and has helped broaden the base of fans of this studio.

This is also true for Shōgun. Hollywood didn’t suddenly remake the hit 1980 miniseries. There has been communication for years about re-adapting James Clavell’s 1975 novel. Several creators attempted to do so and, in 2017, one commission moved into pre-filming stages before being cancelled. At a time when intellectual property assets have become even more valuable than ever to film and television production studios, FX’s control was intended to ensure that Shōgun’s valuable intellectual property would not go to waste. It’s important to note that Disney hasn’t been concerned up to this point in the process, as it didn’t announce its bid to acquire FX’s parent company, 21st Century Fox, until late 2017.

In 2018, Justin Marks, known as co-writer of Top Gun: Maverick, was named an exhibition runner. He then contacted lead actor Sanada Hiroyuki and asked if he would also be a manufacturer on the project. This marked a new beginning for the series, which ultimately took two years of filming and post-production.

In other words, the fact that Godzilla Minus One, The Boy and the Heron, and Shōgun all came out and achieved success around the same time is simply coincidence.

However, if we expand our scope to look at other Japan-related works, then the answer to whether there is greater interest in Japanese culture comes closer to “Yes.”

For example, there is the series Sunny, which began streaming on Apple TV+ in July 2024. The acclaimed series, which has a score of 90% on Rotten Tomatoes, stars Rashida Jones, Nishijima Hidetoshi, Judy Ongg, and Kunimura Jun. by American screenwriter Katie Robbins, based on a 2018 novel by Irishman Colin O’Sullivan, of Japanese origin.

Many pieces set in Japan are actually filmed in other locations. For example, Shōgun was filmed in Canada, while Martin Scorsese’s 2016 film Silence was filmed in Taiwan. But series creator Robbins loved Japan and insisted that Sunny be filmed there. The crew went to film in central Kyoto during the COVID-19 pandemic, which ended up being a lucky thing as it drastically reduced tourism to Japan. Actor Nishijima commented that it was the first time he had been able to film on the streets of Kyoto in his long career in acting.

Then there’s Iceland’s Touch, which represents the country’s 2025 Oscar bid for the most productive foreign feature film. It is based on a novel by the same called The Pandemic written by Ólafur Jóhann Ólafsson. It takes place in Iceland, London, and Japan and stars Japanese actors such as Kōki, Motoki Masahiro, and Nakamura Masatoshi.

Ólafsson was instrumental in creating Sony’s North American gaming business, helping to launch the PlayStation gaming console, a key component of Sony Computer Entertainment of America. His duties took him to Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, when he discovered the story. of Hibakusha, who play a role in this story. The novel was recently published, but it caught the attention of his compatriot Baltasar Kormákur, a director with connections in Hollywood after having worked on 3-D. Filming is scheduled almost immediately.

These are all recent works written by foreign authors who are familiar with Japan, which have motivated other foreign creators and artists. These works then touch the hearts of the public beyond national borders.

Another Hollywood production heavily influenced by Japanese entertainment is The Lord of the Rings: War of the Rohirrim, which will have its world premiere on December 13 (in Japan on December 27).

It is an animated film from New Line Cinema, owned by Warner, and produced by Philippa Boyens, who co-wrote the scripts for the three main films and the three films that make up The Hobbit. The director is Kamiyama Kenji, who also worked on the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex and Eden of the East series, and the painting continues with a distinctly Japanese anime flavor.

Boyens says that he didn’t think there would be an ongoing story that would have to be an anime in the first place. Instead, he came up with this story after others advised him to make an anime. “One of the cool things that happened in the making of this film was that the form came first,” he explains. “There was something about this specific story of the Rohirrim that seemed intrinsically suited to that wonderful Japanese film culture that is anime. “

In fact, anime is a wonderful source of pride in fashionable Japanese culture and has a large number of enthusiasts around the world. If we see more collaborations like this, Japanese designers will also have more opportunities to paint.

I am glad to see that Japan will be showing up in even more international productions in 2025. One example is director Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Another is Marty Supreme, from director Josh Safdie (brother of Benny) and starring Timothée Chalamet.

Filming has already finished on The Smashing Machine, and a top executive at production company A24 has said, “The scenes of Dwayne Johnson walking the streets of Japan are so fresh. I can’t wait for the audience to see them.” He went on, “The directors for both films insisted on filming on location in Japan. It’s impossible to truly re-create Japan somewhere else. It cost money, but there’s value in showing scenery you don’t see in major American motion pictures.”

I think there will have to be more manufacturers and studios that, like A24, are looking to shoot Japanese stories in Japan. 2024 may have been the year that unleashed a trfinish in development. We’re keeping an eye out to see if any of the upcoming titles will end up being the next Shōgun.

(Originally in Japanese. Banner photo: Anna Sawai, winner of Best Leading Actress in a Drama Series, with Sanada Hiroyuki, who won Best Leading Actor in a Drama Series, at the 76th Annual Awards Primetime Emmy in Los Angeles, September 15, 2024. © Reuters. )