On January 27th, Netflix, the major video streaming service, held an event in Tokyo to announce its new lineup, "Next on Netflix 2026." Kazutaka Sakamoto, Vice President of Content, took the stage and announced that the company has signed an agreement to use Toho's new studio, which is currently under construction, in order to expand its production infrastructure.
Sakamoto explained that the contract will cover multiple years, starting in 2028. "We will be able to shoot more than twice as many films as before, and we expect to be able to produce up to 15 films per year. We will also be able to achieve spectacular visual expressions that would have been difficult to achieve on a studio of this scale until now. We want to deliver Japanese productions on a larger scale to a wider and deeper audience around the world," he said.
Regarding the Netflix series "Gas Humans," which is a reboot of Toho's legendary special effects film "Gas Human No. 1" (1960), which is the first collaboration between Netflix and Toho, he said, "It is a work that brings together top creators from Japan and Korea and uses cutting-edge video technology to break new ground in Japanese science fiction expression."
