Prime Video Doubles Down on Japan, Led by Kore-eda's Arashi Documentary
Prime Video is doubling its investment in Japanese original content over the next two years, according to three of the streamer's top executives, and the centrepiece of that push is a documentary about one of Japan's biggest boy bands — directed by a Palme d'Or winner.
The headline title is 5 - Our Time as Arashi -, a behind-the-scenes documentary on Arashi's five-dome farewell tour, directed by Kore-eda Hirokazu. Kore-eda, the filmmaker behind Shoplifters and Monster, oversees the project with Imanaka Kohei and Sunada Mami of his Bun-Buku production collective serving as directors under him. The tour itself came roughly six years after the group began their hiatus. The documentary streams worldwide from 15 December, according to Variety.
A companion concert film, Arashi Live Tour 2026 'We Are Arashi -Prime Video Edition-', captures the tour's Tokyo Dome finale from 31 May and arrives on 21 December. Before either of those land, nine archival Arashi concert titles begin streaming sequentially from 15 September — giving fans a runway of live material stretching back through the group's career.
For anyone outside Japan, the scale of the bet is worth pausing on. Prime Video already holds the number one position in Japan's streaming market by both user ratio and subscription base, according to Japan country manager Oishi. Doubling down from a market-leading position is a statement that the streamer sees more room to grow in a country where local content — not Hollywood imports — is what pulls viewers in.
The Japanese slate extends beyond Arashi. A second season of the anime Nippon Sangoku is in the works, though no launch date has been set. The first season ranked No. 2 on Amazon's global Top 10 Non-English Prime Original Series chart for four consecutive weeks — a measurement that tracks how many hours subscribers worldwide spent watching the show. That kind of international reach for a Japanese-language title is precisely the data point a streamer weighs when deciding what to commission next.
The Arashi project pairs a mass-audience property with an auteur director, which is an unusual combination even in a streaming era that loves prestige packaging. Kore-eda has built his reputation on intimate, character-driven drama; Arashi built theirs on stadium-scale pop. Whether that pairing draws the streaming hours Prime Video is paying for is a question the viewing figures will answer in December.
