"The Japanese film industry is one of the oldest in the world, spanning over a century. Japanese cinema has been responsible for influencing some of the most iconic movies and directors across the globe by producing multiple unique genres, including anime and samurai cinema.
Japanese filmmaking began in 1897. Since then, Japanese directors have won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film four times, far exceeding any other Asian country. Japan's influence on Eastern and Western cinema continues today, inviting and delighting an ever-growing global audience.
Stacker collected IMDb data on all Japanese-language films made by Japanese filmmakers and ranked the top 50 by IMDb user rating, with ties broken by votes. A movie had to have at least 5,000 IMDb user votes to qualify. Metascore also provides critical context."