Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Arashi Doc Leads Prime Video Japan Slate as Top Execs Unveil Country Strategy (EXCLUSIVE)

Prime Video is doubling its investment in Japanese original content over the next two years, according to three of the streamer’s top executives, who detailed a slate led by a documentary on boy band Arashi‘s reunion tour and subsequent conclusion from Kore-eda Hirokazu, in an interview with Variety. As fandom varies by genre, Gandhi says the slate has to reflect customer preferences across all of them: “That’s why, if you see when we have the best of anime, unscripted, scripted, movies, sport now coming through across the board, that’s quite reflected in this.” Oishi, Japan country manager, Prime Video, says Japanese subscribers now expect the service to function as a full entertainment destination rather than a home for a single genre or title. He points to the service’s channel-partner model, including add-on subscriptions and rentals bundled into a single app, as part of meeting that broader appetite.

The documentary, titled “5 – Our Time as Arashi -,” goes behind the scenes of the band’s five-dome farewell tour, which took place roughly six years after the group’s hiatus began. Kore-eda directs, with Imanaka Kohei and Sunada Mami of his Bun-Buku production collective serving as directors under him. The film streams worldwide from Dec. 15, followed by the concert film “Arashi Live Tour 2026 ‘We Are Arashi -Prime Video Edition-‘,” capturing the tour’s Tokyo Dome finale from May 31, on Dec. 21.

Nine archival Arashi concert titles begin streaming sequentially from Sept. 15. Gandhi frames Arashi’s inclusion as part of a broader push into music and cultural figures tied to Prime Video’s young-adult strategy, while Oishi notes that Arashi’s popularity extends well beyond young viewers to a broader audience curious about what happens behind the scenes. Gandhi adds that the young-adult push spans the service’s slate worldwide, citing “The Summer I Turned Pretty,” “Off Campus,” “Maxton Hall” out of Germany, the “Culpa” series from Spain and “Call Me Bae” from India as examples of a strategy built around young viewers he describes as cultural ambassadors.

This is a part about creating culture and being really part of that,” he says. On established IP, Gandhi describes two distinct approaches: leaning on existing fandom, and using adaptations to expand a title’s footprint well beyond its original readership. He points to “Nippon Sangoku” as an example of the latter.

More books got sold, more fans came into this,” he says. A second season of the anime, which ranked No. 2 on Amazon’s global Top 10 Non-English Prime Original Series chart for four consecutive weeks, is also on the slate, though its launch date has not been set. Buddy Marini, head of Amazon MGM Studios, Japan, says the strategy also depends on Japan’s depth of source material beyond its best-known franchises.

And “The Apothecary Diaries,” a co-production with Toho based on Hyuganatsu’s light novel series, which has sold more than 57 million copies in 16 languages, stars Ashida Mana and is set for 2028. Asked about Prime Video Japan’s growth strategy, both Gandhi and Oishi single out original live-action series as the priority. We see the big opportunity here.