Classic Japanese Movies on Netflix

What is true? What is false? Several witnesses see an event differently in Akira Kurosawa's Oscar-winning masterpiece.

Year: 1950
IMDb: 8.3
Netflix rating: 3.8/5
Runtime: 01:28:13
Netflix ID: 60010815 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In director Ozu's last film, an aging widower struggles with modernity and loneliness as he searches for a suitable husband for his daughter.

Year: 1962
IMDb: 8.3
Netflix rating: 3.6/5
Runtime: 01:52:50
Netflix ID: 70104401 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An elderly couple in post-World War II Japan travel to Tokyo to visit their children but are received rather coldly by their offspring.

Year: 1953
IMDb: 8.2
Netflix rating: 3.8/5
Runtime: 02:15:53
Netflix ID: 60031727 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Starting a decade before World War II, a young teacher works to give her 12 students hope, even as the growing shadow of global conflagration looms.

Year: 1954
IMDb: 8.1
Netflix rating: 3.4/5
Runtime: 02:35:53
Netflix ID: 70105681 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A young boy growing up in a poor neighborhood of postwar Osaka makes a new friend and slowly becomes aware of the ways the adults around him survive.

Year: 1981
IMDb: 8
Netflix rating: 3/5
Runtime: 01:45:10
Netflix ID: 80103562 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An aging actor returns to a small town with his troupe and reunites with his former lover and illegitimate son, sparking jealousy from his mistress.

Year: 1959
IMDb: 8
Runtime: 01:58:58
Netflix ID: 60036789 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Legendary Japanese director Shohei Imamura (The Eel) helms this chilling tale of horror and revenge based on actual events about a seemingly harmless young man who blossomed into a cold-blooded, remorseless murderer.

Year: 1979
IMDb: 7.8
Netflix rating: 3.4/5
Runtime: 02:20:22
Netflix ID: 70067850 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Downtrodden housewife Sadako seizes an unlikely opportunity to escape her oppressive life after she is raped by a robber in her home.

Year: 1964
IMDb: 7.8
Runtime: 02:29:54
Netflix ID: 70117959 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An engineer from mainland Japan arrives to survey a remote Okinawan island and gets entangled with a superstitious, incestuous local family.

Year: 1968
IMDb: 7.8
Runtime: 02:54:18
Netflix ID: 81312801 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A man who's just been dumped quits his job to take a road trip. Along the way he picks up a brokenhearted young woman and a man with a secret past.

Year: 1977
IMDb: 7.5
Netflix rating: 3/5
Runtime: 01:48:10
Netflix ID: 80073173 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Peasant woman Tome struggles to make her way in life against the backdrop of Japan's 20th century transformations, doing whatever it takes to survive.

Year: 1963
IMDb: 7.5
Runtime: 02:02:57
Netflix ID: 70117958 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A nameless man is found murdered in a rail yard, stumping a pair of detectives as they try to unravel the identity of both the killer and the victim.

Year: 1974
IMDb: 7.4
Runtime: 02:22:54
Netflix ID: 70049044 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A destitute boy travels on an intergalactic train line with a mysterious woman named Maetel in hopes of fulfilling a promise to his slain mother.

Year: 1979
IMDb: 7.4
Runtime: 02:08:08
Netflix ID: 80197637 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An aimless kid named Shiro finds purpose through his nation's space program and, with the help of his devout friend, becomes the first man in space.

Year: 1987
IMDb: 7.4
Runtime: 02:00:37
Netflix ID: 70080749 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Four Japanese youths visit their elderly grandmother, a woman who's never forgotten the horrors caused by the bombing of Nagasaki during World War II.

Year: 1991
IMDb: 7.3
Netflix rating: 3.4/5
Runtime: 01:37:36
Netflix ID: 60028523 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Sad about their classmate Ino, night school teacher Kuroi and students Zhang, Eriko, Midori and Kazu look back on their experiences at the school.

Year: 1993
IMDb: 7.2
Netflix rating: 3/5
Runtime: 02:08:31
Netflix ID: 80103329 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A fading star convinces a loyal underling to marry his pregnant girlfriend to avoid a scandal, then insists he act as his double in a dangerous stunt.

Year: 1982
IMDb: 7.1
Netflix rating: 2.9/5
Runtime: 01:47:44
Netflix ID: 70020769 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In this acclaimed retelling of the age-old ghost story, a selfish husband is haunted by the terrifying specter of his long-suffering wife, Oiwa.

Year: 1959
IMDb: 7.1
Runtime: 01:16:38
Netflix ID: 81318418 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Three-headed dragon Ghidorah rampages through Tokyo, with Mount Fuji becoming the battleground for a confrontation with Mothra, Godzilla and Rodan.

Year: 1964
IMDb: 6.7
Runtime: 01:32:59
Netflix ID: 70067808 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An investigation into a series of bank robberies leads police to an ethereal dancer, and a mysterious man able to turn himself into vapor.

Year: 1960
IMDb: 6.6
Runtime: 01:31:14
Netflix ID: 81318417 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

In 1999, the world's monsters begin attacking cities. To stop them, humans must free them all from alien mind control so they can defend the planet.

Year: 1968
IMDb: 6.6
Runtime: 01:28:45
Netflix ID: 438164 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Awakened by nuclear weapons testing, an ancient monster rises from the depths of the Pacific Ocean and begins wreaking havoc on Japan.

Year: 1954
IMDb: 6.4
Runtime: 01:36:12
Netflix ID: 60035960 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Alien invaders hatch a plot to conquer Earth with their own mechanized Godzilla, setting up a collision course with the true King of the Monsters.

Year: 1974
IMDb: 6.4
Runtime: 01:24:17
Netflix ID: 70012281 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When aliens from the third planet of the black hole attempt to take over Earth, they find themselves pitted against Godzilla.

Year: 1975
IMDb: 6.2
Runtime: 01:23:16
Netflix ID: 1033310 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

While investigating the mysterious disappearance of a low-level gangster, police discover that liquid radioactive creatures are attacking civilians.

Year: 1958
IMDb: 6.1
Runtime: 01:26:02
Netflix ID: 70120055 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A flying Godzilla comes to save the day when a corrosive monster feeding off of industrial pollutants wreaks toxic havoc on society.

Year: 1971
IMDb: 6.1
Runtime: 01:25:16
Netflix ID: 70012280 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Two pilots make an emergency landing on a remote island and stumble upon the earth-shaking terror of two gigantic beasts locked in battle.

Year: 1955
IMDb: 5.9
Runtime: 01:21:35
Netflix ID: 70059917 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

Using an amusement park as its base, an alien race enlists the help of Gigan and King Ghidorah in their plan to defeat Godzilla and takeover Earth.

Year: 1972
IMDb: 5.7
Runtime: 01:29:06
Netflix ID: 70012279 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When a weather balloon test gone wrong unearths a giant egg that hatches a baby Godzilla, adult Godzilla adopts him and defends him from monsters.

Year: 1967
IMDb: 5.3
Runtime: 01:25:32
Netflix ID: 70018618 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A plane crash on a Japanese island spurs a hunt for a powerful weapon as intrigue swirls around some very unusual insects in this eco-thriller.

Year: 1968
IMDb: 4.8
Netflix rating: 2.9/5
Runtime: 01:24:02
Netflix ID: 80076988 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When a deep sea nation sends the gigantic Megalon to destroy the world above, it’s up to Godzilla and a super robot named Jet Jaguar to save the day.

Year: 1973
IMDb: 4.8
Runtime: 01:21:32
Netflix ID: 80117630 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

A bullied schoolboy daydreams that he's friends with Godzilla’s son, but things take a serious turn when he gets kidnapped by robbers in real life.

Year: 1969
IMDb: 3.9
Runtime: 01:09:23
Netflix ID: 80117535 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

An irresponsible peddler with a heart of gold travels through Japan, falling in love wherever he goes but always winding up a perennial bachelor.

Year: 1997
Netflix rating: 3.1/5
Netflix ID: 80129597 · Watch on Netflix · IMDb

When a theology student flees a hit-and-run accident, he becomes tormented with guilt and trapped in a cycle of suffering — in this world and the next.

Year: 1960
Runtime: 01:40:48
Netflix ID: 70053550 · Watch on Netflix

A soldier long thought to be dead uses a teleportation device to seek vengeance on the comrades who betrayed him during the last days of World War II.

Year: 1960
Runtime: 01:25:32
Netflix ID: 81318402 · Watch on Netflix

When Tokyo is again threatened by Godzilla, officials believe the key to defeating the mutant may involve a giant moth goddess from a remote island.

Year: 1964
Runtime: 01:28:37
Netflix ID: 549156 · Watch on Netflix

Four shipwrecked men on a remote island awaken a dormant Godzilla to help them stop a group of brutal terrorists and the sea monster they control.

Year: 1966
Runtime: 01:26:37
Netflix ID: 70020808 · Watch on Netflix