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.