"Kokuho" dominates the 49th Japan Academy Prize nominations
Monday, January 19, 2026 at 3:11PM
NATHANIEL R in 100 Meters, Asian cinema, Best Animated Feature, Best International Feature, Best International Film, Hayao Miyazaki, Japan, Ken Watanabe, Kokuho, Ryo Yoshizawa, Suzu Hirose, anime

by Nathaniel R

KOKUHO is nominated across the board with Japan's Academy

While many other countries film awards operate on different time tables Japan and France, like the US, are calendar year with nominations in January and awards ceremonies in February or March. The French César nominations are a week away but Japan announced yesterday. They requiretwo continuous weeks in theaters for eligibility (the Oscars are less theatrical-focused *sigh* with only one week required). While Japan is inarguably the most successful Asian country at the Oscars, outside of anime (which Oscar ignores), Korean and Chinese cinema are more popular with US moviegoers with regular crossover hits. We've always wondered why there's that disconnect between the Oscars and arthouse moviegoers. But that's a larger and more complex topic. For now, let's look at the nominees for the 49th edition of Japan's Academy prizes. Japan's eye candy spectacle and Oscar finalist Kokuho received 17 (*gulp*) nominations with eight (*gulp x 2*) nominations happening within the 5 acting categories alone. We don't know if that's a record but it sounds like one. Kokuho has been so popular in release in Japan that it is already the highest grossing live-action Japanese film of all time there.

Nominees, commentary, and some history after the jump...

FILM 

Some recent winners of this prize that were also popular in the US: Shin Godzilla (2016), Shoplifters (2018 - Oscar Nominee Best International Feature), Drive My Car (2021 - Oscar Winner Best International Feature), and Godzilla Minus One (2023 - Oscar Winner Visual Effects) 

DIRECTOR
Stats here and elsewhere are from that category (or all categories within one craft) alone. 

The lone wolf here is Eiji Uchida whose movie isn't up for Best Film, presumably displacing the director of Tokyo Taxi. He was previously nominated for Midnight Swan (2020) which won Best Film but he didn't take Best Director. And given who he is up against here, he'll have to wait again.

 Lee Sang-Il, a Japanese director of Korean descent (hence the name), previously won this prize for the comedy Hula Girls (2006)

SCREENPLAY

 

ANIMATION OF THE YEAR

100 METERS

Both 100 Meters and Chainsaw Man are eligible for the Animated Feature Oscar this year. While anime is hugely popular internationally, Oscar voters have typically avoided honoring them unless the name Hayao Miyazaki is attached. The Japan Academy didn't add this category until 2006 and in the 19 years since only four films -- three winners (The Wind Rises, Mira, The Boy and the Heron) and one nominee (The Tale of Princess Kaguya) --  have also been nominated in the parallel Oscar category. Two films by Hayao Miyazaki have won on both sides of the ocean: Spirited Away (2001) which won Best Film from the Japanese Academy and Best Animated Feature at the Oscars and The Boy and the Heron (2024) which won the animation prizes at both ceremonies. 

ACTRESS 

 

Of previous Best Actress winners Sakura Ando, who has won the Japanese Oscar five times -- three times as lead for Oscar submission 100 Yen Love (2015), Oscar nominee Shoplifters (2018), and Monster (2023) and twice in supporting for A Man (2021) and international sensation Godzilla Minus One (2022) is surely the most well known internationally.

ACTOR 

Ryo Yoshizawa stars as "Kikuo" in KOKUHO

Will Ryô Yoshizawa go three for three with nominations to wins for his impressive commitment as a would-be onnagata in Kokuho? He previously won Newcomer for River's Edge (2018) and Best Supporting Actor for Kingdom (2019). The thirty-one year old star certainly goes through it in Kokuho a mammoth role that spans decades and rags to riches ups and downs. Will he crossover to Hollywood success?

For whatever reason male Japanese movie stars crossover much more often than their female counterparts to international attention. Consider previous winners of this category. Golden Globe and Emmy winner Hiroyuko Sanada (who won this for 2002's Oscar-nominated The Twilight Samurai) and Ken Watanabe, who won twice (2006's Memories of Tomorrow and 2009's Shizumanu Taiyō) both work in Hollywood regularly. The third Best Actor winner who is most familiar to international cinephiles is Koji Yakusho, who has won the Japanese Academy prize an incredible five times: 1996's Shall We Dance? which was a major arthouse hit in the US, 1997's The Eel, 2016's The Third Murder (in supporting), 2018's The Blood of Wolves, and 2023's Oscar-nominated Perfect Days.

Related News: We've been wondering what became of Hidetoshi Nishijima who won this prize for his soulful performance in Drive My Car (2021) so we're happy to learn that he finally has a new movie on the way called Dear Stranger about a Japanese immigrant and his Taiwanese wife whose child goes missing. It's the first entirely US shot production from Japan's Toei company. It premiered in Japan in September but apparently the Academy there didn't like it as it received no nominations but maybe it will make it's way to US release?

SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

My apologies to the women of Kokuho but I was struggling to remember who each of them played. This is because the film is so enormously focused on four male characters (and spans so many decades) and the female characters (I think there were about 6 in total?) seem to get only one key scene each. The most prominent is definitely Shinobu Terajima who plays the wife of Ken Watanabe's actor who disapproves of his decision to adopt the lead character into their kabuki family - a conflict and throughline for the entire film. That the actresses command 60% of this category is a major surprise and only serves as a reminder that Kokuho is extraordinarily popular in Japan. 

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Hokuto Matsumura in FIRST KISS

Thirty-year old star Hokuto Matsumura is a double-nominee this year (see also Lead Actor) but in both categories he'd have to get around the behemoth popularity of Kokuho. Can he manage it? He won Newcomer of the Year a few years ago for XxxHolic (2022).

Of the Kokuho men, Yokohama has a juicy role as a hard-living nepo baby with an on-again off-again attachment to his profession but he's up against the beloved Ken Watanabe (playing his disapproving father) and a small but crucial turn from 80 year old Min Tanaka --who won this category for the Oscar nominated Twilight Samurai (2003) as a legendary onnagata. I could see any of them winning and it's nice that they're all supporting despite the size of Yokohama's role (which would have been co-lead if he hadn't disappeared from the picture for one entire act). My vote would definitely go to Tanaka with the caveat that I haven't seen the other two films.

 

Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures Japan.©Katsuhiro Go/KODANSHA Ltd. All Rights Reserved. ©2025 BAKUDAN Film Partners. All Rights Reserved.NEWCOMER OF THE YEAR

In this category all the nominees are automatically winners which is a sweet way to do "newcomers". The only honoree here whose film has no other nominations is Takaya Matsutani for One Last Throw, a sports drama about a player who is diagnosed with a brain tumor. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

KOKUHO

Thought it was worth noting here that Kokuho's cinematographer is the only non-Japanese DP nominated. Sofian El-Fani is from Tunisia and has quite a filmography which includes France's Palme d'Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour (2013), Mauritania's Oscar nominated Timbuktu (2014), Palestine's Oscar submission It Must Be Heaven (2019), and four episodes of Apple TV's Pachinko (2024) before his impressive work on Kokuho.

LIGHTING DIRECTION

 That the Lighting nominees are the same as Cinematography is, like Oscar's history with the two sound categories, not the best way to show any distinction between aspects of one particular craft!

ART DIRECTION

Muromachi Outsiders, which is also known as Samurai Fury, is the lone wolf here - receiving it's only Japan Academy nomination. It's a 15th century friends to enemies action / war drama.

EDITING

Exit 8, which was also honored for Newcomer of the Year (Yamato Kochi), is a horror thriller about "The Lost Man" (Kazunari Ninomiya ) who is trapped in a subway station trying to find a way to escape. It's based on a video game of the same name.

SOUND RECORDING

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC

Same nominees as sound recording.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM


It's always fun to see what other countries nominate in their "foreign" or "international" categories. Japan tends to favour mainstream blockbusters which here includes Hong Kong's Oscar submission from 2024. All of that plus Conclave!  The M:I nomination made me groan since it's easily the worst entry in that entire franchise.

 

AWARD FROM DISTINGUISHED SERVICE FROM THE CHAIRMAN 

 

SPECIAL AWARD FROM THE ASSOCIATION

 

SPECIAL AWARD FROM THE CHAIRMAN

IN MEMORIAM

 

 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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