EN
In the past quarter century, self-documentary films have formed a relatively easily distributable category in Japan. The genre is rooted in the diary films of the seventies, born in Japan under the influence of Jonas Mekas’s Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania (1972). This study explores the development of Japanese diary films in the context of research on the genre and looks for an answer to the question why diary films have received such attention from Japanese film makers. The author analyses the cultural and social background of film making with this ambition. Subsequently, she compares the thematic trends in Japanese diary films with Slovak ones, namely with the works of Mišo Suchý. She concludes that, contrary to Slovak diary films which often deal with the issue of national identity, Japanese diary films do not raise such questions.