Netflix in Exclusive Five-Year Deal With Japanese Director Hitoshi One

Netflix is getting deeper into business with the hitmaking Japanese director Hitoshi One. The streamer on Monday revealed that it has inked an exclusive five-year deal with the filmmaker, whose most recent project, Tokyo Swindlers, became an international sensation over the summer. Under the agreement, Netflix will exclusively produce and distribute One’s series and film output for the next half-decade.

Tokyo Swindlers debuted on Netflix in July and ranked on the platform’s global top 10 list for non-English TV for five consecutive weeks. At home in Japan — a market Netflix has been courting aggressively — it held the No.1 spot for all TV series for six consecutive weeks.

“Mr. One has generously demonstrated his creative talents in Tokyo Swindlers, a thrilling story with quirky characters full of humanity,” said Kaata Sakamoto, Netflix’s head of content in Japan.

A flashy, over-the-top heist saga, the show follows a team of real estate con artists — including stars Go Ayano, Etsushi Toyokawa and Kazuki Kitamura — as they try to pull off their biggest heist yet after catching wind of a prime piece of property worth 10 billion yen.

Hitoshi One made his film directorial debut in 2011 with a well-received film adaptation of the bestselling manga, Moteki. The movie earned him the “Most Popular Title” award at 35th Japan Academy Awards. Other career highlights include the hit coming-of-age comedy Bakuman. Adapted from a manga of the same name, the film won the best director prize at the 39th Japan Academy Awards. On the small screen, he won the grand prize in the TV category at Japan’s 60th Galaxy Awards — a ceremony organized by Japan’s Broadcast Critics Association — for the 2020 Fuji TV drama Elpis: Hope or Disaster.

“Two weeks after Tokyo Swindlers started streaming, I received a proposal from Netflix for an exclusive contract. I was surprised at how quickly I responded, but I realized that I was drawn to the distribution medium, a genre that is not yet as established as film and TV dramas,” One said in a statement.

He continued: “The high level of awareness toward filmmaking among the Netflix staff, whom I worked with for the first time on Tokyo Swindlers, and the ideal creative environment they presented, which I had never experienced in films or TV dramas before, left a strong impression. I am very excited about the new projects and productions that I will create with Netflix.”

Over the past few years, Netflix has been steadily building out its Japanese live-action pipeline, expanding beyond the bankable anime category that served as its early local content emphasis in Tokyo. Alongside Tokyo Swindlers, other successful Netflix titles out of Japan this year include action hits City Hunter and House of Ninjas, as well as the reality series smash The Boyfriend. Still to come this year is Beyond Goodbye, a romance series inspired by a true story experienced by Netflix executive producer Makiko Okano. The title will premiere next month at the Busan International Film Festival.