[1] Nikkatsu is Japan's oldest major movie studio,[2] having been founded on September 10, 1912, when several production companies and theater chains, Yoshizawa Shōten, Yokota Shōkai, Fukuhōdō and M. Pathe, consolidated under the name Nippon Katsudō Shashin.

[citation needed] Suzuki made dozens of films for Nikkatsu from 1956 onwards, developing an increasingly inventive visual style, but was controversially fired following the release of his 40th, Branded to Kill (1967),[6] which Hori deemed "incomprehensible".

[citation needed] From the late 1950s to the start of the 1970s, they were renowned for their "borderless action" (mukokuseki akushun) movies,[7] designed for the youth market, whose directors included Suzuki, Toshio Masuda, and Takashi Nomura.

[8] The studio also employed such stars as Yujiro Ishihara, Akira Kobayashi, Joe Shishido, Tetsuya Watari, Ruriko Asaoka, Chieko Matsubara and, later, Meiko Kaji and Tatsuya Fuji.

[10] By 1971 the increased popularity of television had taken a heavy toll on the film industry and in order to remain profitable Nikkatsu turned to the production of Roman Porno, which focus on sex, violence, S&M and romance.

[11] In 2005, the company was sold to Index Holdings and in 2010, a revived Nikkatsu studio announced new production of Sushi Typhoon, a movie series made in partnership with a U.S.

[13] In 2011, the French director Yves Montmayeur produced a documentary about the Pink Film period at Nikkatsu called Pinku Eiga: Inside the Pleasure Dome Of Japanese Erotic Cinema.