A significant difference between Japanese cinema and many other national cinemas is the respect paid to screenwriting. A pleasant side-effect of this attention is the publication of screenplays. There have been quite a few journals devoted to nothing other than printing screenplays, and magazines like Kinema Junpo regularly include the scenarios of important films.

One of the challenges facing any teacher or programmer of Japanese film is finding prints to show. Information is everything, but it is scattered around in the catalogs of all the distribution companies. We used to be able to rely on the Limbacher book, which can still be found in any library. However, this resource is hopelessly out of date now. Luckily, there are two places to help you find what you are looking for.

Of course, any book in print can be ordered from any book store. However, if you want to browse for new books, there are a few that stock decent selections of film books. In Kanda, take the A7 Exit and walk down Yasukuni-dori away from Iwanami Hall.

A number of libraries are collecting moving image related books and periodicals in Japanese. One can use WorldCat and other online databases to search for regularly cataloged materials, but not everything in a library’s holdings appear in their regular catalog. There are special collections or not-yet-cataloged materials. This section tries to introduce a few of these. 

This bibliography contains English-language books and articles about Japanese cinema. It is long, but hardly complete. Suggestions for additions are more than welcome.