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Japan is mounting its strongest presence at the Berlin Film Festival in years, with seven films spanning competition, Forum, Panorama and Classics sections. It’s a range that mirrors the country’s record-breaking theatrical year in 2025 and signals what producers describe as a genuine renaissance for Japanese cinema.
The 76th Berlinale lineup features Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s animated debut, “A New Dawn,” competing for the Golden Bear; Yusuke Iwasaki’s socially critical supermarket horror “AnyMart” in Forum; Takuya Uchiyama’s identity-search-focused “Numb” in Panorama; and Nao Yoshigai’s meditative documentary “Masayume” in Forum. The Berlinale Classics section will present restored editions of Shōhei Imamura’s 1966 satire “The Pornographers” and Yoshiaki Kawajiri’s influential 1993 anime “Ninja Scroll,” while animated feature “Chimney Town: Frozen in Time” by Hirota Yusuke is in the Generation section.
Japanese filmmaker Hikari is on the main competition jury while films with Japanese production participation include Edwin’s “Sleep No More” in the Special Midnight strand and Anocha Suwichakornpong’s “Narrative” in Forum Expanded.
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The Berlin presence comes on the heels of Japan’s best theatrical year on record. The country’s box office reached JPY274.45 billion ($1.79 billion) in 2025, up 32% from 2024 and surpassing the previous 2019 peak of JPY261.18 billion, according to figures released by the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan. Admissions climbed 30.7% to 188.76 million tickets sold — the second-highest attendance figure on record.
The surge was driven overwhelmingly by local productions, led by anime blockbuster “Demon Slayer: Kimetsu No Yaiba — The Movie: Infinity Castle — Part 1,” which dominated with $255 million, and Kabuki drama “Kokuho,” which earned $127 million to become the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film of all time locally and went on to score and Oscar nomination. “Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback” followed with $95.8 million, while “Chainsaw Man — The Movie: Reze Arc” collected $67.8 million.
The Berlin presence also follows growing international recognition for Japanese cinema across the festival circuit. Tatsuya Mariko’s “Dear Stranger,” produced by Eisei Shu, garnered acclaim at the Busan International Film Festival last year, where it was praised as “presenting new possibilities for Asian cinema.” The film explores themes of love, identity and guilt within the transnational Asian middle class.
Chie Hayakawa’s coming-of-age drama “Renoir,” produced by Eiko Mizuno-Gray, also made waves following its success at Cannes and other festivals. Mizuno-Gray attributes the film’s resonance to qualities that feel distinctly Japanese. “The subtlety, the ambiguity, the choice not to explain everything — these feel very Japanese, but they also represent an act of trust in the audience,” she says. “‘Renoir’ trusted its viewers, and in turn, the audience was ready to be trusted.”
Producers credit Japan’s distinctive mini-theater culture as a foundation for the current renaissance. “From the 1980s through the 2000s, Japan experienced a ‘mini-theater boom,’ during which a large number of high-quality international films were introduced to domestic audiences,” Shu explains. “This environment played an important role in nurturing today’s filmmakers and filmgoers.”
Currently, more than 600 films are released annually in Japan, with approximately 40% being mini-theater films. “Among them are many outstanding works that have yet to be sufficiently seen overseas,” Shu notes.
Mizuno-Gray emphasizes the importance of diverse perspectives emerging from within Japan itself. “These films don’t really aim to ‘export Japan’; instead, they’re rooted in very personal and specific forms of expression,” she says. “Their personal, concrete stories are often told from perspectives that differ from Western viewpoints, which can make them especially interesting to audiences abroad.”
The success of “Demon Slayer” and other anime titles reflects the broader strength of Japan’s animation industry, which reached a record $25.25 billion in 2024, according to the Assn. of Japanese Animations. Overseas revenues surged 26% year-on-year to $14.27 billion, now exceeding local earnings and representing 56% of total anime market value.
“Kokuho” producer Chieko Murata, whose film defied expectations with its box office performance, observes a maturation in audience tastes. “I honestly did not imagine ‘Kokuho’ to be this successful box office wise,” she says. “‘Kokuho’ is not an accessible film for those who has not read the original novel or is not familiar with Kabuki, but I felt that the young audience now has matured their eyes thanks to those high-quality animation films in the past decades.”
Japan remains a country where traditional media consumption patterns persist. “Japan is one of the few countries where bookstores still exist in every city, people buy newspapers at subway stations and network TV programs has high viewing rates,” Murata notes.
The Berlin showcase kicks off what producers anticipate will be another landmark year. Beyond the February festival, Japan will be the country of honor at the Cannes Film Market in May, a development producers are cheering. “This represents a highly significant opportunity for Japanese cinema, and we hope it will allow the world to see — more clearly than ever — the rich diversity of Japanese filmmaking,” says Shu.
While the most anticipated Japanese title of 2026 remains “Godzilla Minus Zero,” the pipeline includes high-profile titles from established auteurs. Shu highlights Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s period drama “Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner” and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Japan-France co-production “All of a Sudden” as particularly anticipated works. Murata also points to Hirokazu Kore-eda’s two upcoming films, “Look Back” and “Sheep in the Box.” The year will also see continued expansion of manga adaptations, with sequels to “Kingdom” and “Golden Kamuy” alongside new franchises including “Blue Lock,” “Sakamoto Days” and others.
For Mizuno-Gray, the most exciting prospects are elsewhere. “Rather than major, headline-making titles, I’m most excited by quieter surprises and moments of discovery — debut or second features by emerging filmmakers, or new works in which established directors are clearly exploring unfamiliar territory,” she says.
The government’s revised Cool Japan initiative aims to triple overseas content sales to $131.4 billion by 2033, from approximately $38 billion in 2024. This policy framework is encouraging producers to take international perspectives while maintaining cultural specificity.
“In Japan, film is often perceived more as ‘content’ than as ‘art,’ and policies have been introduced to actively promote the export of content, not limited to cinema alone,” Shu observes. “As a result, these developments may encourage creators with an international perspective to reexamine and renew their own culture and modes of expression.”
Mizuno-Gray notes a shift in production approaches. “More producers are starting to experiment with international co-productions to make such a diverse lineup possible, and I think this is gradually changing the way Japan is seen as a more open, global market,” she says.
As Japanese cinema heads to Berlin with its strongest festival presence in years and enters 2026 with momentum from its record-breaking theatrical year, the seven-film Berlinale selection serves as a snapshot of an industry firing on multiple cylinders — from competition-worthy animation and socially engaged genre filmmaking to meditative documentaries and the restoration of canonical works. “We hope that in 2026 as well, the diversity and depth of Japanese cinema will be conveyed to the world in a more multidimensional way, giving rise to new dialogues,” says Shu.
