Abstract

This chapter covers the historical development of film and television, the representative visual media of the 20th century, in Japan. Films were first imported and screened in Japan at the end of the 19th century, with domestic production starting soon after. The first cinema specializing in film exhibition was built in the Asakusa district of Tokyo in 1903. Following this, the number of cinemas increased to reflect the growing demand for films, and this in turn led to a string of film studios being created mainly in Tokyo and Kyoto from 1908 onwards.

From these beginnings, the Japanese film industry found its greatest success in the 1950s. In keeping with Japan’s postwar recovery, the number of movie-goers rapidly increased every year. At its peak, each person in Japan went to the movies at least once a month, on average, and movies became deeply entrenched in people’s lives. Six major film companies—Nikkatsu, Toho, Toei, Shochiku, Daiei and Shintoho—released new films every week. Each had its own directors and actors who were bound by contract and could not work for other companies. In 1958, film audiences reached a peak of 1.12 billion, but this turned out to be the last year of growth, and five years later, in 1963, the number had dropped sharply to less than half, at 510 million. Television broadcasting, which began in 1953 and rapidly permeated society, was seen as the problem, and indeed, the spread of television and the consequent decline in movie theater attendance gathered momentum.

In this chapter, I consider the history of Japanese film and television from the 1950s onwards, in terms of the interaction between the two media. In particular, I take a closer look at how an existing media industry, film, was forced to respond to the rise of an emerging one in television. Then, I clarify how the two representative visual media of the 20th century have continued to coexist to the present day.