Kōta Yoshida


Kōta Yoshida is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He is best known for his distinct blend of eroticism and offbeat humor in films such as Yuriko's Aroma, The Torture Club, and the anthology Sexual Drive. A prominent figure in modern Japanese independent cinema, his work frequently explores themes of obsession, fetishism, and social isolation.

Early life and education

Yoshida was born in Tokyo in 1978. He studied at Waseda University and later trained in filmmaking at the ENBU Seminar, an acting and filmmaking school that also produced the creators of the 2017 hit One Cut of the Dead. After graduating from ENBU Seminar, he worked as an assistant director on numerous film projects and television dramas before directing his first film.

Career

Yoshida's debut short film Coming With My Brother! received the Jury Special Award at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. His first feature film, Yuriko's Aroma, brought him international recognition and received the Special Mention Nippon Visions Award at Nippon Connection in Frankfurt.
His 2011 film Come As You Are was nominated for the International Feature Competition at the Raindance Film Festival. His short film Kyojima 3rd St., Sumida City screened at the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2012, further establishing his reputation on the international festival circuit.
Yoshida's Sexual Drive, an anthology film exploring the connection between food and sexuality, had its world premiere at the 50th International Film Festival Rotterdam in the Big Screen Competition, where it was nominated for the VPRO Big Screen Award. The film subsequently screened at festivals including the Fantasia International Film Festival, the Moscow International Film Festival and the Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
In 2024, Yoshida premiered Snowdrop at the Osaka Asian Film Festival. The film follows Naoko, a woman who quits her job to care for her parents – a mother with dementia and an aging father – and who reluctantly turns to the welfare office for support, offering a restrained portrait of elder care and Japan's social safety net. Critics highlighted the film as a marked departure from Yoshida's earlier erotic comedies toward socially conscious drama centred on human dignity and systemic injustice.
Yoshida's feature Love Disease earned its lead actor a Best Actor award at the Asian Film Festival Roma. His work since Yuriko's Aroma has often foregrounded complex female protagonists, ranging from erotic obsession to the economic precarity and caregiving burdens depicted in Snowdrop.
In 2026, Yoshida is scheduled to release The Girl at the End of the Line, his first adaptation of a literary work, based on Asako Yuzuki's debut short story collection of the same name. The film, which focuses on the fragile friendships and shifting power dynamics among girls at a private high school in Setagaya, Tokyo, has been described as a new step in Yoshida's ongoing exploration of female subjectivity. It is slated for theatrical release in Japan on 23 January 2026.

Filmography

Short films

Television

  • ''Black Report''