Japanese Film Market Trend in 2019

First of all, the overall figures display that 2019 was a pretty good year for the Japanese film industry.

The combination of Japanese and foreign films total box office profit was a record high reaching 261.18 billion JPY. (However, strictly speaking, it is difficult to simply compare the figures before 1999 because the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan, Inc (MPPA) has changed its data collection method since the year 2000.) Last year, the Jap anese consumption tax rose from 8 % to 10 %, which led to a rise in movie ticket prices, but the data shows that it is not the reason why they had the highest box office profit ever. It was because the total number of moviegoers reached 194.91 million in 2019, which is a 15% increase from 169.21 million in 2018.

The 2019 total number of moviegoers is also a new record achieved in the 21st centu ry. In the 1950s, before TV was still available to households, the annual audience was around 1 billion. However, with the spread of TV, the number of moviegoers took a tail spin. Numbers have been below 190 million since 1972, but after hitting a record low of 119.575 million in 1996, it continued to rise and finally recovered to 190 million last year.

In terms of Japan’s film market share, Japanese films make up 54.5 % and foreign films 45.6 %. This is the three consecutive year that Japanese films made the 54 % share. Japanese films holding the majority was a phenomenon for the last 12 years since 2008, but they have been also slowly increasing their market share for the last 4 years.

There could be various explanations for the dramatic increase in box office profits and numbers of an audience in 2019. The first thing that needs to be recognized is SHINKAI Makoto’s latest film, Weathering with You (2019), who is famous for the historical smash hit Your Name (2016). This film also did outstanding, topping the box office earnings list in 2019. Profits marked at 14.06 billion JPY. In Japan, domestic films are classified as a ‘hit movie’ when major production companies earn more than 1 billion JPY, based on this standard one can see how great 14 billion is. Nevertheless, the previous film, Your Name, released in 2016, had a higher box office profit of 25 billion JPY. In comparison, Weathering with You made 10 billion JPY less, but that cannot be considered as a failure. Compared to the previous film, which was designed to be easily enjoyed by the general public, Weathering with You was geared towards the animation fans of SHINKAI Makoto. Therefore, there was no expectation from the get-go that Weathering with You and Your Name would attract the same size audience.

And although many fell short of the two films, the 2019 annual box office profits rose sharply because a large number of other mega-hit films were out. Among them, the greatest contribution was made by Disney. Aladdin (2019) recorded 12.16 billion JPY, came in second behind the Weathering with You, while Toy Story 4 (2019), The Lion King

(2019) and Avengers: Endgame (2019) were all big hits. 3 of the top 5 foreign films were

from Disney (Due to the difference in the method of measurement, Frozen II, which is in second place in the box office of this article wasn't included in the box office that the writer referred to).

In addition, the two non-Disney films out of the five were all distributed by Toho, with No. 1 Weathering with You and No. 4 Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire (2019).

It is not an exaggeration to say that the 2019 Japanese film market was led by Toho ani mations and Disney.

Most of the top 10 Highest-grossing Japanese films were from Toho. To look into the specific data, all but the 4th, 7th, and 8th out of the 10 films were by Toho. This phe nomenon did not happen suddenly last year, but rather a consistent recent trend in the Japanese film industry. As a matter of fact, the 3 films above were not related to Toho and should be featured in a special article. Those 3 films were One Piece: Stampede (2019), Dragon Ball Super: Broly (2019) and Fly Me to the Saitama (2019), which were

all distributed by Toei. The fact that Toei films did well and made it in the top 10 list also contributed to last year’s decent overall box office earnings. The 2019 total box office profit of Toei distribution film was 17.36 billion JPY, which is a 40 percent increase from last year.

Among them, Fly Me to the Saitama being a big hit speaks volumes. TAKEUCHI Hideki, who created Nodame Cantabile and Thermae Romae, took the megaphone and comically depicted the prejudice and inferiority felt by residents of Saitama, a small city located right next to Tokyo, the capital of Japan a global metropolis, and the film broke the 3 existing box office formula being a non-Toho film, non-animation, and a non-popular se ries. But this film also has an ‘original comic.’ Most popular Japanese movie genres were made from popular animations, novels, cartoons, and TV dramas. And in this regard, these films failed to get out of that setting as well. The problem still exists in the Japa nese film industry for not having a recent mega-hit based on an original story.

Also, Fuji TV and Toei participated as a production committee for these films. TV net works participating as the production committee is also a common setting for these recent hits. Fuji TV in particular has been particularly making several successful films lately. As mentioned earlier, Fly Me to the Saitama by Toei distribution entering the top 10 box office profits is definitely groundbreaking, but it still followed the existing standard pro cedure of having a TV network in the midst of the hit film birth.

The fact that most of the mega-hit films are live-action based on animation and popular work (fiction, cartoons, and dramas) are creating Japan’s unique ‘unhealthy’ state where there is a complete discordant between cinematic quality and box office performance. None of the top 10 2019 Japanese films selected by critics at the Japanese film magazine Kinema Junpo, which is equivalent to Korean magazine Cine 21, are among the top 10 box office rankings. The ‘Kinema Junpo Best 10’ 2019 movies were the following: num -

ber 1 was It Feels So Good (2019) by director ARAI Haruhiko, followed by SAKAMOTO Junji’s Another World (2019), MARIKO Tetsuya’s From Miyamoto to You (2019), FUKADA Koji’s A Girl Missing (2019), ISHIKAWA Kei’s Listen to the Universe (2019), SHIOTA Akihiko’s Farewell Song (2019), SHIRAISHI Kazuya’s One Night (2019), IMAIZUMI Rikiya’s Little Nights, Little Love (2019), SUZUKI Takuji’s Randen: The Comings and Goings on a

Kyoto Tram (2019), KUROSAWA Kiyoshi’s To the Ends of the Earth (2019). Among them, only Listen to the Universe is from Toho distribution. Despite the fact that the movie was based on a popular novel, it failed to make it to the top 10 hits among the films distributed by Toho last year. Toho distributed director IWAI Shunji’s Last Letter (2020) this year, which was also well-received, but not a hit in terms of box office success. Parasite, a planned and produced film by director BONG Joonho was a huge success in Korea and abroad last year. However, receiving raving evaluation as a movie director and also reaching commercial success is rare in the Japanese film industry. Parasite, which dominated the world last year, was released in Japan at the end of 2019. However, it was excluded from 2019 box office rankings because it was classified as a 2020 release with the film industry’s statistical system. Parasite was also a huge success in Japan, and so far, as a Korean film to make 3 billion JPY mark was A Moment to Remember (released in 2005 in Japan).

TERUOKA Sozo

He is a lecturer in Asian Films at Nihon University and Ikebukuro Community College, and worked as the programming director for the Tokyo International Film Festival, Hong Kong Film Festival, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and others. As the film critic, he is writing for the Kinema Junpo, PIA and others. He is currently a programming director of Osaka Asian Film Festival.