Japanese cinema can be more difficult to define than it seems at first. In general, it would seem to cover films made by Japanese companies and personnel, filmed in Japan in the Japanese language, and screened first at Japanese movie theaters.In that case, what is to be made of Gō Takamine making films in Okinawa using the Okinawan language, of Akira Kurosawa or Nagisa Ōshima producing works with foreign capital,or Yōichi Sai, a zainichi, making films about Koreans in Japan? Such films, even though they do not meet all of the requirements, are mostly recognized as Japanese films, but the increasing borderlessness of production and distribution, combined with the added complexity of Japanese society and culture in a global age, is making a strict definition more difficult.
