National Film Archive Japan

About

This institution in Kyobashi, Tokyo, traces its origins to 1952, when the Ministry of Education established the National Museum of Modern Art and, alongside it, launched Japan's first national film library program. It opened to the public in 1970 as the Film Center of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, but suffered a fire on September 3, 1984, that destroyed part of the building along with 320 foreign film titles. In 1995, the current main building was completed — a renovation of the former Nikkatsu head office in Kyobashi, designed by architect Yoshinobu Ashihara. In 2018 the institution became independent, reorganized as the National Film Archive of Japan, the sixth institution under the Independent Administrative Institution National Museum of Art. As of the end of February 2020, its holdings totaled 82,946 films — 72,443 Japanese and 10,503 foreign. The Kyobashi main building has a total floor area of 6,903 square meters, while its Sagamihara annex on the outskirts of Tokyo covers 9,575 square meters.