Gold in the Japanese Entertainment Industry
Average reading time — 4 minutes
Japan has loved gold for more than a thousand years — from gilded temples and lacquerware to the gold leaf of Kanazawa, a city that produces almost all of the country's gold leaf. It is no surprise that the precious metal also shines in modern Japanese entertainment: in video games, anime, cinema and traditional theatre.
Video games: the golden cartridge and Pokémon Gold
Japanese game makers have used gold as a sign of something special. When Nintendo's "The Legend of Zelda" was released in North America and Europe in 1987, it came on a distinctive gold-coloured cartridge instead of the usual grey one. The golden cartridge became a collector's icon and a symbol of the series' premium status.
In November 1999 Nintendo and Game Freak released "Pokémon Gold" and "Pokémon Silver" in Japan for the Game Boy Color. The games introduced 100 new Pokémon, a day-and-night cycle and a new region, and became some of the best-selling handheld games of their time. The legendary bird Ho-Oh, shown on the cover of the Gold version, is associated with golden light and rainbow-coloured feathers.
Anime and manga: the hunt for Ainu gold
Gold is the engine of the story in "Golden Kamuy", the manga by Satoru Noda serialised from 2014 to 2022. Set in Hokkaido after the Russo-Japanese War, it follows a veteran soldier and a young Ainu girl searching for a hidden hoard of Ainu gold. The series became a hit anime and, in 2024, a live-action film, and it drew wide attention to Ainu culture and to the history of Hokkaido's gold rush.
Cinema: golden monsters and a golden temple
In 1964 the studio Toho introduced King Ghidorah, a golden three-headed dragon, in the film "Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster". With its glittering gold scales, Ghidorah became Godzilla's most famous rival and one of the most recognisable monsters in world cinema.
Japan's most famous golden building has its own place in film and literature. Kinkaku-ji, the Golden Pavilion in Kyoto, is covered in gold leaf. In 1950 it was burned down by a young monk; the event inspired Yukio Mishima's novel "The Temple of the Golden Pavilion" (1956) and Kon Ichikawa's film "Conflagration" (1958). The pavilion was rebuilt in 1955 and regilded in the 1980s, and today it is one of the most photographed places in Japan.
Theatre: gold on stage
In traditional Japanese theatre, gold creates atmosphere. Kabuki and Noh costumes are woven with gold thread, and folding screens covered with gold leaf (byōbu) reflect candle and lamp light, making the stage glow. Gold here is not only decoration — it signals nobility, the supernatural or the importance of a scene.
"Golden Week" and the film business
Even one of Japan's best-known holiday periods has a link to entertainment. The cluster of public holidays at the end of April and the beginning of May is called "Golden Week". The name is widely credited to the film industry of the early 1950s, which noticed that cinemas were busiest during these days and promoted them as a "golden" season for releases.
Why gold works in entertainment
In Japanese culture gold is associated with value, rarity and good fortune. That is why creators use it to mark the best, the rarest and the most legendary — a special edition, a legendary monster or a treasure worth searching for.
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