TOKYO -- The Japanese film industry has produced many internationally celebrated filmmakers over the decades, from Yasujiro Ozu and Kenji Mizoguchi to Hirokazu Kore-eda and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. But it has a mixed track record for film preservation.
Of approximately 7,000 films made in Japan during the silent era, which extended into the 1930s due to the slow adoption of sound equipment, only about 70 are known to survive in complete form. The lost films include some by Ozu, Mizoguchi and other master directors. Tokyo's Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 destroyed many prints; Allied bombing in World War II even more.
