Kentaro Hagiwara (萩原健太郎; born 1980, Tokyo) is a Japanese film and television director celebrated for his visually driven storytelling and versatility across media. After graduating in 2007 from the Film & Video Department at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California, he returned to Japan to direct commercials, music videos, and short films.
In 2013, Hagiwara received the prestigious Sundance/NHK International Filmmaker Award for his feature-length screenplay Spectacled Tiger, co-written with Kyohta Fujimoto—marking him as the first Japanese recipient. His feature directorial debut came with the live-action adaptation Tokyo Ghoul (2017), which premiered at Anime Expo in Los Angeles and achieved global attention.
Hagiwara has continued to expand his cinematic range through emotionally resonant dramas (Sayonara Made no 30-pun, 2020), television (Iribito/異邦人, winner of the WOWOW Creator Award), fantasy (WandaHatch – Sora Tobu Ryū no Shima, 2023), and recent introspective titles like Aomany Period and Gōman to Zenryō (2024).
Based in Tokyo, Hagiwara also judges emerging filmmakers, such as at the 2024 TikTok TOHO Film Festival. With a creative touch spanning commercials to international film festivals, Kentaro Hagiwara remains a dynamic influence in contemporary Japanese cinema.