1, Bullet Train (2022)
Based on Kotaro Isaka’s novel “Maria Beetle,” this action film depicts the worst 120 minutes of a hitman’s life on a super-fast train from Tokyo to Kyoto. Although the film is set in Japan, the actual shooting took place in the U.S. because the Corona disaster prevented filming in Japan. The Tokyo Station scene was shot at a convention center in Los Angeles decorated to look like Tokyo Station.
2, Your Name is. (2016)
A story of love and miracles between a boy and a girl who switch places in a dream. With box-office revenues exceeding 25 billion yen, it became a national animated film widely known as Makoto Shinkai’s masterpiece. The final scene, in which Taki and Mitsuba are reunited, and the “Suga Shrine Otokozaka” in Suga-machi, Shinjuku-ku, which is also used in the key visual, attract many fans from Japan and abroad.
3, wild speed x3 tokyo drift (2006)
This is the third film in the “Wild Speed” series, which has been nicknamed “WASPY” since the first film was released in 2003. The main character is Sean Boswell, a high school student, instead of Dominic and Brian as in the previous films. He gets into trouble in the U.S. and moves to Tokyo, where his father lives. Through the friends he meets in Tokyo, he becomes fascinated with drifting, and gets into the world of street racing. The film depicts a car chase at the Shibuya Scramble Crossing, but since permission to shoot at midnight was not granted, the film was shot in Los Angeles with a composite background of the Shibuya area.
4, Lost in Translation (2003)
Sofia Coppola’s second feature film. The film delicately depicts the emotional exchange between Bob, a middle-aged Hollywood star who meets in Tokyo, and Charlotte, a young woman who accompanies her photographer husband to Tokyo, and won numerous film awards including the 76th Academy Award for Best Screenplay in 2004. The Park Hyatt Tokyo in Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo, appears frequently in the film as the place where Bob and Charlotte stay. The Park Hyatt Tokyo reopened in October 2025 after a one-year, five-month renovation project that began in May 2024.
5, Kill Bill (2003)
Director Quentin Tarantino mixes his favorite Japanese yakuza films, period dramas, anime, Hong Kong kung-fu films, and macaroni westerns in this entertainment film. Uma Thurman played the lead role, and many Japanese actors also appeared in the film, including Shinichi Chiba, Chiaki Kuriyama, Jun Kunimura, Kazuki Kitamura, Issei Takahashi, and Yoji Tanaka. The Japanese-style restaurant that appears in the film was modeled after “Gonpachi” in Nishi-Azabu.