When I started reviewing Japanese films for The Japan Times in 1989, many of the people making and distributing them were convinced that the Hollywood juggernaut was slowly crushing them. How could they hope to compete against superior Hollywood technology and vastly larger Hollywood budgets?
In the past decade, however, Japan's film industry has not only survived but thrived. In the 10 years from 1999 to 2008, the number of local films released soared from 270 to 418, while their market share rose from 31.9 percent to 59.5 percent.
First among the reasons for this flowering is that the TV networks and Toho — the top distributor and exhibitor — have produced a strong, steady flow of hits during the past decade. The leader is Fuji TV, whose "Odoru Daisosasen" ("Bayside Shakedown") films, spun from a cult hit Fuji series about a cheeky detective's battles with crooks and the police bureaucracy, have consistently topped the box-office charts since the first in 1998.