1. Eiji Tsuburaya (1901)

Japanese Film Director

Japanese special effects artist best known for being one of the creators of the Godzilla franchise. He was also a cameraman who made the first use of the camera crane...

2. Ishirō Honda (1911)

Japanese Film Director

Japanese director of tokusatsu and kaiju films whose most famous credits included Godzilla from 1977 and Matango from 1963.

3. Seijun Suzuki (1923)

Japanese Film Director

Director in the yakuza crime genre who made bombastic, irreverently funny films like Branded to Kill and Tokyo Drifter.

4. Hayao Miyazaki (1941)

Japanese Film Director

Director and animator whose 2001 film Spirited Away won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. He is also known for such films as The Secret World of Arrietty, Princess Mononoke, and Ponyo.

5. Nagisa Oshima (1932)

Japanese Film Director

Director and screenwriter who received widespread recognition for In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence.

6. Toshio Matsumoto (1932)

Japanese Film Director

Film director who is best known for the 1969 drama feature Funeral Parade of Roses. This film served as a major inspiration for Stanley Kubrick's adaptation of A Clockwork Orange. 

7. Yoshiyuki Tomino (1941)

Japanese Film Director

Popularized mecha anime with Mobile Suit Gundam and its numerous spinoffs.

8. Kiyoshi Kurosawa (1955)

Japanese Film Director

Director of popular Japanese horror films such as Pulse and Cure.

9. Hideo Nakata (1961)

Japanese Film Director

Director of the original Japanese films Ring, Ring 2, and Dark Water, all of which were remade for American audiences.

10. Takashi Shimizu (1972)

Japanese Film Director

Japanese director who is the creator of the Japaness Ju-on series and the American Grudge film franchise. He directed the television series The Great Horror Family from 2004 to 2005.

11. Kazuyoshi Kumakiri (1974)

Japanese Film Director

Kazuyoshi Kumakiri is a Japanese film director.

12. Miwa Nishikawa (1974)

Japanese Film Director

Miwa Nishikawa is a Japanese director. Hirokazu Koreeda produced her feature film Wild Berries after she worked as an assistant director on his Distance. She was given the Best New...

13. Kaoru Ikeya (director) (1958)

Japanese Film Director

Kaoru Ikeya is a Japanese film director. He directed The Ants. In the intricate tapestry of World War Two there are still many threads left to be considered. Hidden...

14. Junji Sakamoto (1958)

Japanese Film Director

Junji Sakamoto is a Japanese film director.

15. Hiroyuki Nakano (Unknow)

Japanese Film Director

Hiroyuki Nakano is a Japanese film director.

16. Kiyoshi Sasabe (1958)

Japanese Film Director

Kiyoshi Sasabe is a Japanese film director.

17. Minoru Kawasaki (film director) (Unknow)

Japanese Film Director

Minoru Kawasaki born 15 August 1958 is a Japanese film director screenwriter and producer. He is known for his low budget absurdist comedy films. Kawasaki began his career with some...

18. Hideo Onchi (1933)

Japanese Film Director

Hideo Onchi is a Japanese film and television director.

19. Shinichiro Sawai (1938)

Japanese Film Director

Shinichirō Sawai is a Japanese film director and screenwriter.

20. Seijirō Kōyama (1941)

Japanese Film Director

Seijirō Kōyama is a Japanese film director.

21. Haruki Kadokawa (Unknow)

Japanese Film Director

Haruki Kadokawa is a Japanese publisher film producer director and screenwriter. He was the son of Genyoshi Kadokawa and inherited the position of president of the publishing house Kadokawa Shoten...

22. Ryōsuke Takahashi (Unknow)

Japanese Film Director

Ryōsuke Takahashi is a Japanese anime director screenwriter and producer. He is among Sunrise's most renowned and noted directors with his work epitomizing much of Sunrise's work in the 1980s...

23. Mitsuo Yanagimachi (1945)

Japanese Film Director

Mitsuo Yanagimachi is an award-winning Japanese screenwriter and film director.

24. Yoshihiro Fukagawa (1976)

Japanese Film Director

Yoshihiro Fukagawa is a Japanese film director. His film Into the White Night was screened in the Main Programme of the Panorama section at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival....

25. Takashi Ishii (1946)

Japanese Film Director

Takashi Ishii is a Japanese film director screenwriter and manga artist. He has directed several pinku eiga erotic films but his most notable feature was the 1995 nihilistic crime thriller...

26. Sachi Hamano (1948)

Japanese Film Director

Sachi Hamano aka Sachiko Hamano and Chise Matoba is a Japanese film director. She is the most prolific and written-about female pink film director.

27. Gō Takamine (1948)

Japanese Film Director

Gō Takamine is a Japanese director of fiction films documentaries and experimental films. Born on Ishigaki Island and raised in Naha Takamine went to university in Kyoto and there...

28. Ryūichi Hiroki (Unknow)

Japanese Film Director

Ryūichi Hiroki is a Japanese film director. He won critical acclaim for 800: Two Lap Runner.

29. Nobuhiro Yamashita (1976)

Japanese Film Director

Nobuhiro Yamashita is a Japanese film director.

30. Satoru Mizushima (1949)

Japanese Film Director

Satoru Mizushima is a film maker. He graduated from Waseda University majoring in German literature.

31. Shuji Kataoka (1950)

Japanese Film Director

Shūji Kataoka aka Yasui Shūchi is Japanese Pink film director and screenwriter. He was born in Hokkaido on November 23 1950. He studied at Kanto Gakuin University but dropped out...

32. Kichitaro Negishi (1950)

Japanese Film Director

Kichitaro Negishi is a Japanese film director. Although his films are admired by critics in Japan for their intelligence Negishi has received little international recognition for his work. He has...

33. Itsumichi Isomura (1950)

Japanese Film Director

Itsumichi Isomura is a Japanese film director. He won the award for Best Director at the 20th Yokohama Film Festival for Ganbatte Ikimasshoi.

34. Tetsuya Nakashima (1959)

Japanese Film Director

Tetsuya Nakashima is a Japanese film director. He was born in Fukuoka attending high school in Chikushino.

35. Shun Nakahara (1951)

Japanese Film Director

Shun Nakahara is a Japanese film director. He won the award for Best Director at the 12th Yokohama Film Festival for Sakura no Sono.

36. Hiroyuki Nasu (1952)

Japanese Film Director

Hiroyuki Nasu was a Japanese film director. He won the award for Best Director at the 8th Yokohama Film Festival for Be-Bop-Highschool and Be-Bop-Highschool Kōkō yo Tarō aika.

37. Fumihiko Sori (1964)

Japanese Film Director

umihiko Sori is a Japanese film director and film producer. He received a nomination for the 'Best Director' prize at the Japanese Academy Awards for his directing debut Ping Pong.

38. Yang Yong-hi (1964)

Japanese Film Director

Yang Yong-hi is a Japanese-born Korean film director.

39. Kazuyuki Izutsu (1952)

Japanese Film Director

Kazuyuki Izutsu is a Japanese film director screenwriter and film critic.

40. Tsuyoshi Takashiro (1964)

Japanese Film Director

Tsuyoshi Takashiro is a Japanese DJ filmmaker and writer.

41. Takashi Yamazaki (1964)

Japanese Film Director

Cardcaptor Sakura character see List of Cardcaptor Sakura characters#Takashi Yamazaki. Takashi Yamazaki is a Japanese film director screenwriter and visual effects director. He won the Best Director and Best Screenplay...

42. Hiroshi Sugawara (Unknow)

Japanese Film Director

Hiroshi Sugawara is a Japanese film director film producer and screenwriter.

43. Shinji Aoyama (1964)

Japanese Film Director

Shinji Aoyama is a Japanese film director screenwriter composer film critic and novelist. He graduated from Rikkyo University. He won two awards at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for his...

44. Kunihiko Ikuhara (1964)

Japanese Film Director

Kunihiko Ikuhara also known as Ikuni is a Japanese creative artist who has collaborated on several famous anime and manga series. He is best known for creating and directing Revolutionary...

45. Yukihiko Tsutsumi (1955)

Japanese Film Director

Yukihiko Tsutsumi is a Japanese television and film director. He began directing commercials and music promotion videos as an employee of Nihon Television. After spending time abroad he returned and...

46. Shusuke Kaneko (1955)

Japanese Film Director

Shusuke Kaneko is a Japanese film director and screenwriter notable for directing the Heisei Gamera trilogy Godzilla Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack and the live-action film adaption...

47. Shinji Higuchi (1965)

Japanese Film Director

Shinji Higuchi is a storyboard artist particularly in anime and one of the top special effects supervisors in Japan best known for his work on Shusuke Kaneko's Gamera trilogy in...

48. Shinji Imaoka (1965)

Japanese Film Director

Shinji Imaoka aka 羅門ナカ is a Japanese film director screenwriter and actor. He is one of a group of pink film directors of the 2000s known collectively as the Seven...

49. Yumi Yoshiyuki (1965)

Japanese Film Director

Yumi Yoshiyuki is a Japanese film director actress and screenwriter best known for her work in the pink film genre.

50. Hiroshi Ando (1965)

Japanese Film Director

Hiroshi Ando is a Japanese writer and director. Born 13 June 1965 in Tokyo Japan. Hiroshi Ando has several films to his credit including Saraba gokudo dead beat Blue Kokoro...