The Japan Foundation Reveal 2026 Touring Film Programme
The UK’s largest annual celebration of Japanese cinema, The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme, has revealed its 2026 line up, with this year’s films falling under the theme of Knowing Me, Knowing You: The True Self in Japanese Cinema.
The 2026 programme offers audiences the chance to catch up with the latest and greatest selection of cinema to come out of Japan, with the line-up offering mirror images of the world we inhabit, from serious social dramas to laugh-out-loud comedies, from sci-fi to horror.
The festival will include the UK Premiere of Takashi Miike’s Sham (2025, 129 min). Go Ayano stars as a school teacher who is forced to publicly apologise after being accused by a boy’s mother of brutally disciplining her child. Yukihiko Tsutsumi’s The Hotel of My Dream (2024, 98 min, UK Premiere) is the semi-autobiographical story of the author Asako Yuzuki (Butter), who dreams of success within the Japanese literary establishment. Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality from Funihiko Sori is an intimate true story of the novel’s creation, involving some of Japan’s most renowned historical artistic figures (celebrated novelist Bakin Takizawa), with the spectacular fictional battles of eight mythical warriors contained within its story. The film stars Koji Yakusho (Perfect Days) and Seiyo Uchino (13 Assassins).
Naoto Kumazawa‘s The Final Piece (123 min, UK Premiere), a skeletal corpse is unearthed deep in the mountains it becomes the catalyst for a complex case involving dark secrets and illegal gambling in the world of ‘shogi’ – Japanese chess. This gripping thriller stars renowned actor Ken Watanabe (Inception) and Kentaro Sakaguchi. Tomoaki Fujino‘s deeply personal and emotionally charged documentary What Should We Have Done? (2024, 102 min, UK Premiere), turns the camera on his own family in an attempt to address their troubling handling of his schizophrenic sister. Blue Boy Trial Kasho Iizuka‘s film sheds light on a ground-breaking yet long- overlooked case that questioned the legality of gender-affirming surgery and, more profoundly, what it means to find happiness by being your authentic self. Baku Kinoshita‘s anime The Last Blossom (2025, 90 min) about an elderly prisoner who befriends a plant, starring voice talents of Kaoru Kobayashi and Junki Tozuka.
Shinya Tamada‘s I Am What I Am (2022, 104 min) is a liberating celebration of a woman who faces herself and chooses to live against Japan’s social norms. This one stars Toko Miura (Drive My Car) Atsuko Maeda and Ko Maehara in a story which challenges traditional ideals of love and womanhood. ANGRY SQUAD: The Civil Servant and the Seven Swindlers directed by Shinichiro Ueda, (2024, 120 min, UK Premiere). This is a adapted from the 2016 Korean drama Squad 38 into an action-packed, big screen comic heist, in which a straight-laced tax office employee (Seiyo Uchino) teams up with a genius con artist (Masaki Okada) to form the ‘Angry Squad’ and take down a crooked real estate tycoon (Yukiyoshi Ozawa). Teki Cometh (Dir. Daihachi Yoshida , 2023, 108 min, UK Premiere) From the pages novelist Yasutaka Tsutsui (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Paprika), this is a visually striking black-and-white tale of a retired French literature professor (Kyozo Nagatsuka) who lives a quiet, structured life until one day he receives an email containing a chilling message: “An enemy is coming from the north.” He initially dismisses it as a hoax, but gradually, an ominous feeling grows within him. Soon, he begins to experience haunting dreams that seem to expose his deepest sins…Is it all in his imagination?
Petals and Memories is from Tetsu Maeda (2025, 118 min, UK Premiere) is a heart-warming film. Highly rated and very popular in Japan, this beautifully crafted film stars Ryohei Suzuki and Kasumi Arimura as siblings navigating a secret that threatens their relationship and a promise made to their late parents. Ryota Kondo’s Missing Child Videotape (2024, 104 min, UK Premiere), is based on his award-winning short film of the same name. This is a slow-burn ghost story steeped in classic J-horror atmosphere. Keita (Rairu Sugita) is haunted by the guilt he carries over the mysterious disappearance of his younger brother in the mountains. One day, Keita receives a VHS tape from his estranged mother, capturing the exact moment his brother vanished. His friend Tsukasa (Amon Hirai), who has psychic abilities, senses a dark, lingering presence within the grainy footage and advises him not to get too involved. But Keita, desperate for the truth, returns to the mountains to find out exactly what happened that day… Baby Assassins fans will want to check out Kensuke Sonomura‘s Ghost Killer (2024, 104 min). Delivering sharp humour and high-octane martial arts, story of redemption and unlikely partnership between a university student (Akari Takashi) and the ghost of a murdered hitman (Masanori Mimoto). [Glasgow Film Festival review].
The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2026 takes place in cinemas around the UK from February 6th to March 31st 2026. Head over to the foundation’s official website for the full line-up and details on the screening venues around the UK.
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