The festival also continued its partnership with Nippon Connection and presented over sixty screenings of short films and video art by independent Japanese filmmakers.

Filmmakers Naomi Kawase, Kōji Wakamatsu, Masayuki Kakegawa, and Takako Matsumoto appeared as special guests at the festival for audience Q&A sessions.

Eight special guests attended the festival, including directors Masashi Yamamoto, Tak Sakaguchi, Yudai Yamaguchi and Yoshimasa Ishibashi and actress Sora Aoi.

8 special guests attended, including Toshi Fujiwara, Yu Irie, Kenji Kohashi, Hisako Matsui, Masami Nagasawa, Naoko Ogigami, Toshiaki Toyoda, Koji Yakusho (recipient of the CUT ABOVE Award for Excellence in Film).

[8] JAPAN CUTS 2014 increased the number of films in the lineup to 28, further diversifying genre and including more transnational productions, such as Dave Boyle’s Japanese-American Man from Reno and the Mo Brothers’ Indonesian-Japanese Killers.

8 special guests attended, including Ando, Boyle, Kazuki Kitamura (recipient of the CUT ABOVE Award for Excellence in Film), Shiro Maeda, Fumi Nikaido, Ken Ochiai, Tsuta, and Chihiro Yamamoto.

17 special guests attended, including Sakura Ando (recipient of the CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Performance in Film), Haruhiko Arai, Bishop Blay, Donari Braxton, Steve Cossman, Takeshi Fukunaga, Irie, Youki Kudoh, Hirotaka Kuwahara, Akiko Maruyama, Hisako Matsui, Tomonari Nishikawa, Joel Schlemowitz, Yuki Tanada, Masashi Yamamoto, Yamasaki, and Ted Wiggin.

Over 20 special guests attended (the most in the festival's history), including Denden, Lily Franky (recipient of the CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Performance in Film), Takashi Itani, Atsuko Maeda, Mizuki Misumi, Tatsuya Mori, Mipo O, Okita, Hitoshi One, Onohana, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour, Jr., Ryuichi Sakamoto, Tsubota, Adam Torel, Eiji Uchida, Kensaku Watanabe, and Yokohama.

Masao Adachi, Emi Meyer, Sion Sono provided video introductions, and Keiko Araki, Kazuhiro Soda, and Alexander Zahlten participated in a special industry panel.

[11] Highlighting “the strength and diversity of the festival's programming” MUBI presented a selection of previous JAPAN CUTS favorites online.

[12] JAPAN CUTS’ 2017 edition presented a dynamic program of titles across the Feature Slate, Documentary Focus, Experimental Spotlight, and Classics sections, in addition to a newly established Shorts Showcase with narrative works.

[13] The 2018 edition of JAPAN CUTS includes titles across the Feature Slate, Documentary Focus, Experimental Spotlight, and Classics sections, in addition to a variety of pre-feature short films.

Special guests include Akio Fujimoto (Passage of Life), Kazuo Hara (Sennan Asbestos Disaster), Moët Hayami (KUSHINA, what will you be), Tomona Hirota (KUSHINA, what will you be, YEAH), Eric Khoo (Ramen Shop), Kirin Kiki (Mori, The Artist's Habitat, Still Walking, recipient of the CUT ABOVE Award for Outstanding Performance in Film), Kazuyuki Kitaki (Dream of Illumination), Sachiko Kobayashi (Sennan Asbestos Disaster), Shunsuke Kubozuka (Hanagatami), Kaori Oda (Toward a Common Tenderness), Takumi Saitoh (blank 13, Ramen Shop), Shinsuke Sato (BLEACH), Thunder Sawada (Dream of Illumination), Yohei Suzuki (YEAH), Yuya Takagawa (Dream of Illumination), Hikaru Toda (Of Love & Law), Yoko Yamanaka (Amiko), Elisa Yanagi (YEAH), Keisuke Yoshida (Thicker Than Water), and Nao Yoshigai (Across the Water, Breathing House, Stories floating on the wind).