The authors of this very interesting new compendium on recent Japanese cinema would agree, I think, that the "new" in their title is used in two senses: First, it means films made only a short time ago; second, it suggests films and filmmaking methods not previously experienced or encountered -- novel or unfamiliar cinema.
Accounting for this division between old and new, they posit a renaissance. This was "the slow emergence of true independent filmmaking," as contrasted with the corporate filmmaking of the major film companies, most of which went bankrupt or otherwise ceased production.
Though taking over a decade to "come to a boil," the "full-blown re-emergence" occurred in the 1990s when "a new generation of filmmakers appeared, the vast majority coming from roots that lay outside the traditional film industry." Their "attitude and philosophies of cinema were entirely different from those of the old studio period. They were independent in spirit: artists with nothing to lose, but everything to gain."