Future seasons of the Emmy-winning “Shogun” could finally film in Japan if the country addresses critical infrastructure and incentive gaps, Emmy-winning producer Miyagawa Eriko indicated during a candid MPA industry panel at the Tokyo International Film Festival on Wednesday.
When asked by Variety about shooting subsequent seasons in Japan, Miyagawa expressed clear interest. “It’s not up to me, but I would love to, personally, and I will always be pitching some ideas and opportunities,” she said. “I’m doing that now, I’ll be doing that throughout. Season 3, we don’t have scripts, we don’t know what it is yet. But, I’d love to.”
The producer’s openness represents a potential homecoming for the series, which wanted to shoot in Japan for its first season but couldn’t make it work. “We very much wanted to shoot here, but it was height of COVID,” Miyagawa explained. “[Creators] Justin [Marks] and Rachel [Kondo] couldn’t come to Japan to scout, so unfortunately we had to give up.”
“I get a lot of heat,” Miyagawa said about the decision to shoot in Canada. “The studio ultimately makes these decisions, so I am not in a place to speak on behalf of them.”
But the pandemic wasn’t the only obstacle. Miyagawa, speaking alongside Australian producer Schuyler Weiss (“Elvis”), Thailand’s Apinat Obb Siricharoenjit, unit production manager on “Alien: Earth,” and Kusunoki Junko, president of Film Solutions Co. and production consultant on HBO’s “Tokyo Vice,” detailed the infrastructure limitations that ultimately pushed the period drama to Vancouver. “Where we would base the bulk of our shoot was always going to be a numbers decision,” she said, noting the show’s need for extensive soundstage space, backlots and locations suitable for building fishing villages and castle walls.
Vancouver’s appeal was undeniable: “Infrastructure was there, housing options were really broad, and the big studio was maybe half an hour, 45 minutes drive away, and it was very compact and effectively supported our needs.”
For Japan to attract “Shogun” and similar large-scale productions, the panelists identified several urgent priorities. While Japan’s introduction of film incentives has generated unprecedented international interest, Kusunoki pinpointed critical implementation problems. She explained that uncertainty around grant approval timing creates a chicken-and-egg dilemma: productions must hire staff and develop budgets to apply, but risk losing everything if not selected.
“When it becomes ‘sorry, you didn’t get it,’ even though they’re offering 50% support, which is wonderful, losing that 50% means productions consider going to Thailand instead, or canceling altogether,” Kusunoki said. She advocated for earlier letters of intent from government agencies to allow proper pre-production.
The annual deadline crunch compounds the problem. “You have to finish by the end of January to meet the fiscal year, which means you really only have about six months to work,” she noted, stressing that proper pre-production is essential for quality filmmaking.
Miyagawa emphasized the scale challenge that would need to be addressed for “Shogun” to return: “For a show like ‘Shogun,’ which just means so much space,” including massive soundstages and diverse nearby locations.
Kusunoki drove the point home: “Sound stages in Japan are generally very small, and the largest one in Toho is still very small in Hollywood standards.”
Siricharoenjit offered a cautionary tale from Thailand’s recent boom. When “Alien: Earth” came to Bangkok, “we were in our little shell,” he admitted. The production required 13 soundstages across the city and had to import 800 sky panels from New Zealand — more than double Thailand’s entire 350-unit inventory. “We just hit a point of realization, an epiphany — we’re not ready.”
Weiss, drawing on Australia’s experience with international productions, pushed back against local industry anxiety about Hollywood takeovers. “Go have coffee with a grip and ask them how they feel,” he suggested. “International productions come and pay their mortgage so they can then come and make a small art movie in Australia.”
He cited New Zealand as an example: “Off the back of one series of movies,” Peter Jackson’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy “turned Wellington into a global film center. That’s just what one massive injection of international production can do.”
Siricharoenjit emphasized the importance of supporting local productions alongside international work. Thailand is developing both local production incentives and post-production incentives to retain talent. “We have all Thai names up there” in Marvel movie credits, he noted, “but there’s no jobs. So they have to go outside of the country. It’s time to bring these people home.”
Low wages and poor working conditions — including 18-hour days with no overtime — make Japanese film work unattractive to young talent. “We’re turning great people away from the market,” Miyagawa said, calling for “that hard conversation” about industry labor practices.
Weiss advocated for creative recruitment: “You give me a week, five real estate agents, and I’ll give you back five location agents,” he said, noting that mid-career transitions and better promotion of diverse film industry roles could rapidly expand the crew base.
Despite the challenges, panelists saw growing openness on both sides. “Over the years there’s more openness both ways, especially from the Hollywood side,” Miyagawa observed. “There are willingness, eagerness to collaborate and also willingness to work with more Japanese crew when they’re shooting in Japan.”
Kusunoki highlighted “Tokyo Vice” as a model, noting how location managers who worked on the show subsequently joined the American Location Managers Association. She advocated for more Japanese content made in collaboration with international partners, praising “Shogun” as “not a traditional Japanese film, but clearly Japanese content.”
“As an island nation, it’s important to present Japanese content made in Japan,” she said. “But the next phase should be participating as Japan within the world.”
When asked about cross-border collaboration, Weiss pointed to Europe’s model of routine multi-country co-productions. “I would love to see an Australian, Japanese, South Korean, Thai co-production that’s not because of some specific unique need, but just because we want to work together,” he said.
Siricharoenjit agreed, noting Budapest’s success came partly from bringing in crew from across Europe. “We need something like that in the Asia Pacific region too.”
