How can we talk about ‘transnational’ when we talk about Japanese cinema?

ABSTRACT Is it possible to talk about “transnational” when we talk about Japanese cinema? If it is, how? It is true that there are problems in the concept of national cinema. We all know by now that: 1) there has been an essentialist tendency in postwar film criticism and film studies that emphasizes the difference of “Japanese cinema” compared to Hollywood, and 2) “Japanese cinema” cannot be easily regarded as a national cinema in the sense that it reflects a putative national culture. But I must stress that criticizing the concept of national cinema is not equal to bringing in transnational cinema as an alternative. Instead of applying the notion of transnational as a panacean alternative to national cinema, I think it is more productive to discuss specific tensions between national and transnational in the history of Japanese cinema.