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Writing on Japanese cinema has prioritized aesthetic and cultural difference, and obscured Japan's contribution to the representation of real life in cinema and related forms. Donald Richie, who was instrumental in introducing Japanese cinema to the West, even claimed that Japan did not have a true documentary tradition due to the apparent preference of Japanese audiences for stylisation over realism, a preference that originated from its theatrical tradition. However, a closer look at the history of Japanese documentary and feature film production reveals an emphasis on actuality and everyday life as a major part of Japanese film culture. That 'documentary mode' – crossing genre and medium like Peter Brooks' 'melodramatic mode' rather than limited to styles of documentary filmmaking alone – identifies rhetoric of authenticity in cinema and related media, even as that rhetoric was sometimes put in service to political and economic ends. The articles in this Special Issue, ‘Developments in the Japanese Documentary Mode’, trace important changes in documentary film schools and movements from the 1930s onwards, sometimes in relation to other media, and the efforts of some post-war filmmakers to adapt the styles and ethical commitments that underpin documentary's "impression of authenticity" to their representation of fictional worlds

ethnofiction --- Japan --- documentary --- non-fiction --- dramatization --- Minamata disease --- Tsuchimoto Noriaki --- W. Eugene Smith --- Ishimure Michiko --- ethics of representation --- The Children of Minamata are Living --- Minamata: The Victims and Their World --- authorship --- documentary film --- hibakusha --- Japanese cinema --- Mizoguchi Kenji --- semi-documentary --- Shindō Kaneto --- film theory --- documentary film theory --- postwar Japan --- post-1945 Japan --- Hani Susumu --- cinéma verité --- direct cinema --- observational documentary --- cinematography --- the culture film --- Imamura Shōhei --- History of Post-War Japan as Told by a Bar Hostess --- fiction and documentary --- history --- memory --- experience --- magic lantern --- popular history movement --- avant-garde documentary --- new Left --- Teshigahara Hiroshi --- Adachi Masao --- subjectivity --- landscapes --- folklore studies --- documentary photography --- n/a --- Shindō Kaneto --- cinéma verité --- Imamura Shōhei

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The aim of this Special Issue lies in expanding contemporary discussions on Japanese Cinema and its transnational aspects by applying new critical methodologies and stances and in revealing the contradictions inherent in the way the old paradigm of ‘National Cinema’ has traditionally been articulated. In order to do so, this publication highlights the limitations of assessing Japanese film as a cinematic phenomenon confined to its national borders. Throughout this issue, the concept of transnationality is not confined to a single definition and is instead used as an analytical framework which allow authors to surpass narrow perspectives that neglect the complex nature of Japanese film in terms of its esthetics, narratives, and theoretical approaches as well as production, consumption, and distribution systems. This volume casts light on the extraordinary international flows of images, stories, iconographies, and theories between Japan and other countries, and assesses the dialectic relationship between two apparently contradictory aspects: external influences and Japanese uniqueness, revealing how ‘uniquely Japanese’ films may ironically contain foreign codes of representation. Thus, the articles presented here bring a more comprehensive understanding of how global cultural flows have shaped local creativity. Some authors adopt additional transnational perspectives, through which they analyse how Japan is represented as ‘other’ from outside and how the rest of the world is represented by Japan, or propose a renewal of film theories on Japanese cinema that have traditionally been dominated by Western writings. Overall, manuscripts included in this publication help the reader to understand different ways in which Japan expands beyond Japanese Cinema and Japanese Cinema expands beyond Japan.

The arts --- Films, cinema --- Shakespeare --- Kurosawa --- Macbeth --- films --- translation --- transcultural --- Noh --- tragedy --- fate --- guilt --- contemporary Japanese cinema --- cultural blending --- intertextuality --- mise en abyme --- Nobuhiro Suwa --- transculturality --- (trans)national cinema --- national cinema --- transnational Japanese film --- taiyōzoku --- mukokuseki --- 'kimono effect' --- youth icons --- postwar film festivals --- cartoon movie --- Japan and Spain --- transnational imagery --- film studies --- ideological analysis --- ideology --- Japanese cinema --- nation --- New Left --- New Wave --- Nuberu Bagu --- Yoshida Kiju --- Naomi Kawase --- cinema of place --- women directors --- art cinema --- international film festivals --- female authorship --- auteur --- metamorphosis --- animation --- Franz Kafka --- cinematic picture --- film aesthetics --- theory of beauty --- ikebana --- kire --- geidō --- film philosophy --- Japanese aesthetics --- transcultural thinking --- Ri Koran --- Li Xianglan --- Yamaguchi Yoshiko --- transnationality --- Japanese Empire --- propaganda films