The cinema of Japan (日本映画, Nihon eiga^?) has a history that spans more than 100 years. Japan has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world – as of 2009 the fourth largest by number of feature films produced. In 2011 Japan produced 411 feature films that earned 54.9 % of a box office total of US$2.338 billion. Movies have been produced in Japan since 1897, when the first foreign cameramen arrived. In a ranking of the best films produced in Asia by Sight & Sound, Japan made up eight of the top twelve, with Tokyo Story ranked number one. Japan has won the Academy Award for the Best Foreign Language Film four times, again more than any other country in Asia. Some notable Japanese films are Tokyo Story, Seven Samurai, Ugetsu, Tampopo, In the Realm of the Senses, and Godzilla.

The kinetoscope, first shown commercially by Thomas Edison in the United States in 1894, was first shown in Japan in November 1896. The Vitascope and the Lumière Brothers' Cinematograph were first presented in Japan in March 1897, and Lumière cameramen were the first to shoot films in Japan. Moving pictures, however, were not an entirely new experience for the Japanese because of their rich tradition of pre-cinematic devices such as gentō (utsushi-e) or the magic lantern. The first successful Japanese film in late 1897 showed sights in Tokyo.

Saori Hara (原紗央莉, Hara Saori^?) is a former Japanese AV idol, model and actress who has also used the name Mai Nanami (七海まい, Nanami Mai^?).

Saori Hara was born in Hiroshima Prefecture to a Japanese mother and a father of mixed German-Japanese parentage.

Hara started her career as a junior idol under the name Mai Nanami. As a teenager, she sang the theme song Spicy Days (スパイシーデイズ, Supaishiideizu^?) for the animated TV show The Marshmallow Times on TV Osaka in 2004. She also had parts in two movies in 2005, the March TV drama The Dream of Delinquent Boys (不良少年の夢, Furyō Shōnen No Yume^?) for TBS, and the April theatrical release, horse-racing melodrama Haru Urara (Lovely Fields), which was later released as a DVD.

She had also made a bikini-model photobook, Mai Nanami First Photobook, in May 2005 and a non-nude (gravure) DVD titled Mai Nanami: Yamagishi Shin Digital Movie Museum which was released in August 2005. As Nanami, she also played the female lead in another mainstream movie that was due to be released in Japan in 2006 but had its debut at the American Film Market in Santa Monica, California in November 2005 as Deep Sea Monster Reigo. The film was eventually released in Japan as Reigo: The Deep Sea Monster vs the Battleship Yamato.

Terumasa Hino (日野 皓正, Hino Terumasa^?, born October 25, 1942 in Tokyo) is a Japanese jazz trumpeter. Currently based in New York, Hino is widely acknowledged as one of Japan's finest jazz musicians. His instruments include the trumpet, cornet and flügelhorn.

Hino's exposure to music began at a young age, with his father, a step dancer and trumpeter, teaching him tap dancing when he was 4 years old. He soon began performing with the trumpet when he was 9 years old. In the 1950s, Hino began his career as a professional jazz musician; his music being inspired by Fumio Nanri and Hiroshi Sakaue. In 1965, after working with several noted jazz artists, he joined Hideo Shiraki's Quintet, with whom he stayed till 1969, leaving to lead his own band full-time, which he had started in 1964. In 1969, Hino released the album Hi-nology, released to critical acclaim and success, and soon after performed in several jazz festivals and clubs worldwide, such as the Berliner Jazztage in 1971 and Munich Jazzclub in 1973, and working with Masabumi Kikuchi in 1974, before settling in New York in 1975.

Walter Elias "Walt" Disney (December 5, 1901 – December 15, 1966) was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O. Disney, he was co-founder of Walt Disney Productions, which later became one of the best-known motion picture producers in the world. The corporation is now known as The Walt Disney Company and had an annual revenue of approximately US$36 billion in the 2010 financial year.

Disney is particularly noted as a film producer and a popular showman, as well as an innovator in animation and theme park design. He and his staff created some of the world's most well-known fictional characters including Mickey Mouse, for whom Disney himself provided the original voice. During his lifetime he received four honorary Academy Awards and won 22 Academy Awards from a total of 59 nominations, including a record four in one year, giving him more awards and nominations than any other individual in history. Disney also won seven Emmy Awards and gave his name to the Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort theme parks in the U.S., as well as the international resorts Tokyo Disney Resort, Disneyland Paris, and Hong Kong Disneyland.

Maria Ozawa (小澤 マリア, Ozawa Maria^?, born January 8, 1986), who used the name Miyabi (みやび^?) early in her career, is a Japanese adult video (AV) actress known in Japan as an AV idol.

Ozawa was born in Hokkaidō, Japan. Her mother is Japanese and her father is French Canadian. Ozawa graduated from Hokkaido International School, and explains she has a higher ability of reading and writing English rather than Japanese. Ozawa played hockey on a daily basis, and often sang karaoke after classes. She claims she became sexually active at the age of 13, and learned the "48 sexual positions" from a book she purchased.

In 2002, when she was 16 years old, Ozawa debuted in a 30-second Japanese TV commercial for DARS Chocolate alongside two members of the Japanese pop group KinKi Kids. Ozawa is featured sharing chocolate with one of the two singers while secretly holding hands with the other.

Ozawa became acquainted with adult videos (AV) by watching sex tapes she borrowed from a friend's brother. Unlike most AV actresses, Ozawa was not scouted. Instead, she was introduced to the AV industry through a friend appearing in AVs. She began by modeling as Miyabi for the pornographic site Shirouto-Teien.com in June 2005, which resulted in several sets of photographs and a short hardcore gonzo video released in CD-R and DVD-R formats.