Japan Academy Prize for Picture of the Year
Japan's national film academy has crowned a Picture of the Year since 1978 — every winner in our library, ranked by composite canon score rather than by ceremony year.
Award results are facts and are listed in full. The score chip is our composite canon score.
- 1Spirited Away2001 · Hayao Miyazaki · Japan · fantasy, animation, drama4.98
Berlin Golden Bear winner 2002 · Japan Academy Prize winner 2002 · Kehr's annual top 10 2002 #1
- 2Shoplifters2018 · Hirokazu Koreeda · Japan · drama3.56
Palme d'Or winner 2018 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2018 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 2019
- 3Drive My Car2021 · Ryusuke Hamaguchi · Japan · drama3.17
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2021 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 2022 · Film Comment year-end poll 2021 #2
- 4The Ballad of Narayama1983 · Shohei Imamura · Japan · comedy, drama2.39
Palme d'Or winner 1983 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1984 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1983 #5
- 5Black Rain1989 · Shohei Imamura · Japan · drama2.08
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1989 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1990 · Cahiers du Cinéma annual top 10 1989 #7
- 6Shall We Dance?1996 · Masayuki Suo · Japan · comedy, drama2.07
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1996 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1997 · Sarris's annual top 10 1997 #2
- 7Vengeance Is Mine1979 · Shohei Imamura · Japan · drama, crime2.04
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1979 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1980 · Criterion Collection spine #384
- 8The Funeral1984 · Jūzō Itami · Japan · comedy2.02
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1984 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1985 · Criterion Collection spine #1125
- 9Princess Mononoke1997 · Hayao Miyazaki · Japan · fantasy, animation, action1.97
Japan Academy Prize winner 1998 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1997 #2 · Letterboxd Top 250 #72
- 10A Taxing Woman1987 · Jūzō Itami · Japan · comedy1.92
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1987 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1988 · NYT Best 1,000 Movies
- 11Departures2008 · Yōjirō Takita · Japan · drama, musical1.88
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2008 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 2009 · Roger Ebert's Great Movies
- 12The Yellow Handkerchief1977 · Yōji Yamada · Japan · comedy, drama1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1977 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1978
- 13Zigeunerweisen1980 · Seijun Suzuki · Japan · horror1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1980 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1981
- 14Fall Guy1982 · Kinji Fukasaku · Japan · drama1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1982 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1983
- 15My Sons1991 · Yōji Yamada · Japan · comedy, romance1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1991 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1992
- 16Sumo Do, Sumo Don't1992 · Masayuki Suo · Japan · comedy1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1992 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1993
- 17A Last Note1995 · Kaneto Shindō · Japan · drama1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1995 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 1996
- 18The Twilight Samurai2002 · Yōji Yamada · Japan · drama1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2002 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 2003
- 19Hula Girls2006 · Sang-il Lee · Japan · comedy1.75
Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2006 #1 · Japan Academy Prize winner 2007
- 20Childhood Days1990 · Masahiro Shinoda · Japan · drama1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 1991 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1990 #2
- 21Crest of Betrayal1994 · Kinji Fukasaku · Japan1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 1995 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1994 #2
- 22Begging for Love1998 · Hideyuki Hirayama · Japan · drama1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 1999 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1998 #2
- 23Always Sanchōme no Yūhi2005 · Takashi Yamazaki · Japan · drama1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 2006 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2005 #2
- 24Confessions2010 · Tetsuya Nakashima · Japan · drama, thriller1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 2011 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2010 #2
- 25The Kirishima Thing2012 · Daihachi Yoshida · Japan · comedy, drama, romance1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 2013 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2012 #2
- 26The Great Passage2013 · Yuya Ishii · Japan · romance, comedy, drama1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 2014 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2013 #2
- 27Shin Godzilla2016 · Hideaki Anno · Japan / United States · sci-fi, action, drama1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 2017 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2016 #2
- 28A Man2022 · Kei Ishikawa · Japan · drama1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 2023 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2022 #2
- 29Kokuho2025 · Sang-il Lee · Japan · drama1.38
Japan Academy Prize winner 2026 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2025 #2
- 30The Incident1978 · Yoshitarō Nomura · Japan · drama1.18
Japan Academy Prize winner 1979 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1978 #4
- 31Station1981 · Yasuo Furuhata · Japan · drama1.18
Japan Academy Prize winner 1982 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1981 #4
- 32Poppoya1999 · Yasuo Furuhata · Japan · drama1.18
Japan Academy Prize winner 2000 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1999 #4
- 33Our Little Sister2015 · Hirokazu Koreeda · Japan · drama1.18
Japan Academy Prize winner 2016 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2015 #4
- 34House on Fire1986 · Kinji Fukasaku · Japan · drama1.14
Japan Academy Prize winner 1987 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1986 #5
- 35Shizumanu Taiyō2009 · Setsurō Wakamatsu · Japan1.14
Japan Academy Prize winner 2010 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2009 #5
- 36Rebirth2011 · Izuru Narushima · Japan · thriller, drama1.14
Japan Academy Prize winner 2012 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2011 #5
- 37A Class to Remember1993 · Yōji Yamada · Japan · drama1.11
Japan Academy Prize winner 1994 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1993 #6
- 38The Third Murder2017 · Hirokazu Koreeda · Japan · drama1.07
Japan Academy Prize winner 2018 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2017 #8
- 39Godzilla Minus One2023 · Takashi Yamazaki · Japan / United States · action, sci-fi, adventure1.07
Japan Academy Prize winner 2024 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2023 #8
- 40After the Rain1999 · Takashi Koizumi · Japan / France · drama1.05
Japan Academy Prize winner 2001 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 2000 #9
- 41Gray Sunset1985 · Shunya Itō · Japan · drama1.04
Japan Academy Prize winner 1986 · Kinema Junpo Best Ten (Japanese) 1985 #10
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- 45Tokyo Tower: Mom and Me, and Sometimes Dad2007 · Joji Matsuoka · Japan · drama0.75
Japan Academy Prize winner 2008
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The academy that crowns the box office
Every film here won Picture of the Year at the Japan Academy Film Prize, the ceremony the Japan Academy Film Prize Association has staged since 1978 as a deliberate answer to the American Oscars — its categories were built to mirror them. Like the Academy in Los Angeles, this is an industry body's vote about its own year rather than a critics' verdict, and the result skews toward what Japan actually went to see. The winners lean populist in a way the Oscars rarely dare: alongside prestige dramas sit the country's biggest domestic hits, animated blockbusters, and — twice — a rubber-suited monster. That a national academy handed its top prize to Shin Godzilla (2016), and again to Godzilla Minus One (2023), tells you most of what separates this list from a festival jury's.
How our composite re-sorts the winners
The order on this page is ours, not the academy's. We keep every winner but strip the year-by-year chronology away and re-rank all 49 titles by the same composite score used across the library. Read that way, the list splits cleanly. Near the top, Hirokazu Koreeda's Shoplifters (2018) lands at #87 (score 3.56) and Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car (2021) at #134 — the internationally acclaimed titles the wider canon keeps returning to. Shohei Imamura, the one auteur here more decorated abroad than at the domestic box office, places three winners on the page, led by The Ballad of Narayama (1983) at #256. Below them, the crowd-pleasers sink: Godzilla Minus One rests at #1028 (score 1.07), the spectacle the wider polls have not yet come back to, and a long band of loyal domestic hits settles near the composite floor, present only because the academy once said yes.
Where the populist and the canon agree
The interesting case sits at the very top, where the two verdicts collide and, for once, both are right. Spirited Away (2001), Hayao Miyazaki's animated fable, is the highest winner we hold — #22, score 4.98 — and it arrived as the rare popular phenomenon the international canon then adopted wholesale. Here the academy's populism and the wider critical record point at the same title, the exception that proves how seldom they do. Miyazaki's earlier Princess Mononoke (1997), the first anime to take Picture of the Year, several ceremonies earlier, ranks far lower at #399 — a reminder that even within one director's Ghibli run the composite draws distinctions the box office never made.