Recent Japanese dramas
The newest titles in the archive, by air date.
Japanese food and drink
What it is, how it is eaten, and where it came from.
Japanese culture
The customs, the clothes and the words behind them.
Japan: where to start
Japanese television and cinema reach most people sideways, through one film that stayed with them or one series everybody was talking about, and then the trail goes cold. This page is the index to what is here: 7 dramas, 5 films, 8 people and 4 guides, each one a record with sourced fields rather than a paragraph of opinion, and all of it linked so a title leads to a face and a face leads back to everything else that person made.
The two halves of Japan on screen do not look alike, and that is the useful thing to know first. The drama side runs short. A Japanese series is usually nine to twelve episodes, made for a single season and finished, which is why Hana Yori Dango and Hana Kimi are still watched twenty years on and why a streaming series like Alice in Borderland felt like a change rather than a continuation. The film side is where the country's export reputation was built, in horror that rewrote the genre worldwide and in monster cinema that keeps being reinvented rather than retired.
Where to watch is the question this site answers the same way every time. Every title page carries a "Where to watch" block naming the platforms licensed in your region, whether that is Netflix, Prime Video or a theatrical release with no stream at all. We do not host anything and we do not link to unlicensed copies. If a title has no licensed platform where you are, the page says so rather than sending you looking.
Cast is where the archive earns its name. An actor is entered once, on the cast list of the title they appeared in, and their profile builds its own filmography by reading that relationship backwards. Open Death Note, click Tatsuya Fujiwara, and Battle Royale is already there with the year and the billing, without anyone maintaining a second list. The people panel on this page is the most recent additions, newest first.
Food is not decoration on a screen archive. Midnight Diner is built entirely around dishes, the takoyaki stall in an Osaka street scene has a documented history going back to one man in 1935, and the guides here are written to the same standard as the records: sourced, and silent wherever nobody can source it.
Frequently asked questions
Where can I watch Japanese dramas legally?
Title pages list the official platforms we know of and, where TMDB has JustWatch data, which services carry the show in your country. This site does not stream anything and does not link to unlicensed copies.
Where do the scores come from?
Readers. A score appears on a title only once people have voted on it, and the number of votes is printed beside it, so a 9 from four people never reads as a 9 from four hundred.
Where do the posters and the data come from?
Posters and portraits are shown through the TMDB API and belong to the studios, broadcasters, distributors and agencies behind each work or person. Facts on the page come from the sources named in each record. This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
What if something here is wrong or missing?
Use the "Request a correction" link on the page and an editor reviews it. A field nobody can source is left empty rather than guessed at.