Tokyo Theater to Screen Japanese Films with English Subtitles

Only a few Japanese films are available to audiences who aren’t fluent in the language. One theater chain is aiming to change that.

By Jay Andrew Allen

What Japanese films have you seen lately? No, I mean besides Godzilla and Demon Slayer. Outside of a handful of popular titles, much of Japanese cinema — even within Japan itself — remains inaccessible to audiences who aren’t fluent in the language. One theater chain wants to change that and help make Japanese movies the talk of the world again.

The Japanese media you never see

I won’t lie — one reason I love living in Japan is the unfettered access to local media. From variety shows and anime to novels, it’s nice not having to jump through hoops to avoid regional restrictions.

The worldwide anime boom means that a certain subset of Japan’s anime is easier to watch worldwide than it’s ever been. However, there’s a ton of Japanese entertainment that never gets a foreign release, let alone official subtitles. This is true even in anime. In fact, Japan’s most popular anime — shows like Sazae-san, for…