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.

• 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

• 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

• Tokyo File 212 (1951) — directed by Dorrell McGowan and Stuart E. McGowan
• Oriental Evil (1951) — directed by George P. Breakston
• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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
• Black Rain (1989) — directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Douglas and Ken Takakura

• 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
• Tokyo Eyes (1998) — directed by Jean-Pierre Limosin, starring Shinji Takeda and Hinano Yoshikawa
• Enlightenment Guaranteed (1999) — directed by Doris Dörrie, starring Uwe Ochsenknecht

• 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^[1]
• The Animatrix (Program) (2003) — directed by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
• Lost in Translation (2003) — directed by Sofia Coppola, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson^[1]
• Café Lumière (2003) – directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien^[1]
• 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, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho
• Blood: The Last Vampire (2009) — directed by Chris Nahon, 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

• 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^[2] (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
• Rush (2013) — directed by Ron Howard, starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Brühl
• 47 Ronin (2013) — directed by Carl Rinsch, starring Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada
• Fast & Furious 6 (2013) — directed by Justin Lin, starring Vin Diesel and Paul Walker
• The Wolverine (2013) — directed by James Mangold, starring Hugh Jackman 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
• 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
• 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
• 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

• 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
• Detective Chinatown 3 (2020) — directed by Chen Sicheng, starring Wang Baoqiang and Turbo Liu
• 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
• 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
• 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

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