List of foreign films set in Japan

The following is a list of foreign films set in Japan. Japan has provided an exotic and cosmopolitan backdrop to many international films set 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.

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• 3 Ninjas: Kick Back (1994) — directed by Charles T. Ganganis, starring Victor Wong and Max Elliot Slade
• 47 Ronin (2013) — directed by Carl Rinsch, starring Keanu Reeves and Hiroyuki Sanada

A

• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956) — directed by Michael Anderson, starring David Niven and Cantinflas

B

• Babel (2006) — directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, starring Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett and Gael García Bernal
• Back at the Front (1952) — directed by George Sherman, starring Tom Ewell and Harvey Lembeck
• The Bad News Bears Go to Japan (1978) — directed by John Berry, starring Tony Curtis and Jackie Earle Haley
• The Barbarian and the Geisha (1958) — directed by John Huston, starring John Wayne and Eiko Ando
• Black Rain (1989) — directed by Ridley Scott, starring Michael Douglas and Ken Takakura
• Bushido Blade (1981) — directed by Shusei Kotani, starring Timothy Patrick Murphy and Frank Converse

C

• Café Lumière (2003) — directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien, starring Yo Hitoto and Tadanobu Asano
• The Challenge (1982) — directed by John Frankenheimer, starring Scott Glenn and Toshirō Mifune
• Cold Fever (1995) — directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson, starring Masatoshi Nagase and Lili Taylor

D

E

• Emperor (2012) — directed by Peter Webber, starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones
• Enlightenment Guaranteed (2000) — directed by Doris Dörrie, starring Uwe Ochsenknecht and Gustav-Peter Wöhler
• Enter the Void (2009) — directed by Gaspar Noé, starring Nathaniel Brown and Paz de la Huerta
• Escapade in Japan (1957) — directed by Arthur Lubin, starring Cameron Mitchell and Jon Provost

F

• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006) — directed by Justin Lin, starring Lucas Black and Bow Wow
• Fear and Trembling (2003) — directed by Alain Corneau, starring Sylvie Testud and Kaori Tsuji

G

• Godzilla (2014) — directed by Gareth Edwards, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ken Watanabe
• The Grudge (2004) — directed by Takashi Shimizu, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jason Behr
• Gung Ho (1986) — directed by Ron Howard, starring Michael Keaton

H

• House of Bamboo (1955) — directed by Samuel Fuller, starring Robert Ryan and Robert Stack
• The Hunted (1995) — directed by J.F. Lawton, starring Christopher Lambert

I

• Into the Sun (2005) — directed by Christopher Morrison, starring Steven Seagal and Matt Davis

J

K

• The Karate Kid 2 (1986) — directed by John Avildsen, starring Ralph Macchio and Pat Morita
• Kill Bill vol. 1 (2003) — directed by Quentin Tarantino, starring Uma Thurman and Lucy Liu

L

• The Last Samurai (2003) — directed by Edward Zwick, starring Tom Cruise and Ken Watanabe
• Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) — directed by Clint Eastwood, starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya
• Lost in Translation (2003) — directed by Sofia Coppola, starring Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson

M

• Mastermind (1976) — directed by Alex March, starring Zero Mostel and Keiko Kishi
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) — directed by Rob Marshall, starring Zhang Ziyi and Gong Li
• Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters (1985) — directed by Paul Schrader, starring Ken Ogata and Masayuki Shionoya
• Mr. Baseball (1992) — directed by Fred Schepisi, starring Tom Selleck and Ken Takakura
• My Geisha (1962) — directed by Jack Cardiff, starring Shirley MacLaine and Yves Montand

N

O

P

Q

R

• The Ramen Girl (2009) — directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, starring Brittany Murphy and Sohee Park
• Rhapsody in August (1991) — directed by Akira Kurosawa, starring Richard Gere and Sachiko Murase

S

• Sayonara (1957) — directed by Joshua Logan, starring Marlon Brando and Miiko Taka
• Shogun (1980) — directed by Jerry London, starring Richard Chamberlain and Toshirō Mifune
• Stopover Tokyo (1957) — directed by Richard L. Breen, starring Robert Wagner and Joan Collins

T

• The Teahouse of the August Moon (1956) — directed by Daniel Mann, starring Marlon Brando and Glenn Ford
• Tokyo! (2008) — directed by Michel Gondry, Leos Carax and Bong Joon-ho
• Tokyo Eyes (1998) — directed by Jean-Pierre Limosin, starring Shinji Takeda and Hinano Yoshikawa
• Tokyo Joe (1949) — directed by Stuart Heisler, starring Humphrey Bogart and Alexander Knox
• Tokyo Pop (1988) — directed by Fran Rubel Kuzui, starring Carrie Hamilton and Diamond Yukai
• Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) — directed by Richard Fleischer and Kinji Fukasaku, starring Martin Balsam and Soh Yamamura

U

V

W

• Wasabi (2001) — directed by Gérard Krawczyk, starring Jean Reno and Hirosue Ryoko
• The Wolverine (2013) — directed by James Mangold, starring Hugh Jackman and Hiroyuki Sanada

X

Y

• The Yakuza (1975) — directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Robert Mitchum and Ken Takakura
• You Only Live Twice (1967) — directed by Lewis Gilbert, starring Sean Connery and Akiko Wakabayashi

Z