[1] It is written with two ateji (ad hoc kanji used for an unrelated word): 能 nō 'ability' and 登 tō/to 'ascend'.

The Noto Peninsula features prominently in the Japanese film noir Zero Focus (Zero no Shoten, 1961), directed by Yoshitaro Nomura.

The film features breathtaking footage of the peninsula's coast, along with an interesting dissection of the area's social distinctions.

Noto Peninsula is also the setting of Hirokazu Koreeda's second film Maborosi (1995) and Shōhei Imamura's final film Warm Water Under a Red Bridge (Akai Hashi no Shita no Nurui Mizu, 2001).

Suzu, the city located at the tip of the Noto Peninsula is the setting for the 2014 film Saihate Nite.