Taro Otani

Taro Otani (Japanese: 大谷太郎; born 1967) is a Japanese television and film director. Active primarily within the Japanese television industry, he has directed numerous drama series and television films for Nippon Television (NTV) and other networks since the late 1990s.

Career and Filmography

Otani began directing television dramas in the late 1990s, with early credits including Five (NTV, 1997) and Densetsu no Kyoshi (NTV, 2000). Over the subsequent decades, he became a prolific director for NTV, helming high-profile drama series such as multiple seasons of the popular school drama Gokusen (2002, 2005, 2008), Bambino! (2007), Zeni Geba (2009), Voice (2019), and its subsequent seasons, as well as Captured Hospital (2023) and Captured Airport (2024).

In addition to his extensive television work, Otani directed the feature film Ghost (released internationally as a Japanese remake titled Gosuto) in 2010. His portfolio also spans numerous television movies, including Inspector Zenigata (2017) and Murder Standard Score 70 (2014).