In an article in the New York Times on 2/4/2024 by the journalist Motoko Rich, the nine public-toilets featured in the movie were built to help welcome visitors to Japan as part of the planned Summer Olympics in 2020.
As the pandemic delayed the Olympics, Koji Yannai, a senior executive for Fast Retailing (known for its Uniqlo brand) sought a way to still make the toilets known internationally, contacted several screenwriters and advertisers, leading to the idea of having a well-known film director to produce a documentary about these toilets.
Given an invitation to produce the documentary, Wim Wenders decided to make a full-length movie instead.
As the pandemic delayed the Olympics, Koji Yannai, a senior executive for Fast Retailing (known for its Uniqlo brand) sought a way to still make the toilets known internationally, contacted several screenwriters and advertisers, leading to the idea of having a well-known film director to produce a documentary about these toilets.
Given an invitation to produce the documentary, Wim Wenders decided to make a full-length movie instead.
Official submission of Japan for the 'Best International Feature Film' category of the 96th Academy Awards in 2024, making it the first time a movie not directed by a Japanese filmmaker is nominated as the Japanese entry.
Shot in only 17 days.
The screenplay took only three weeks to be written.
Perfect Days (2023) was shot 60 years after Japanese director Yasujirô Ozu made his last film, An Autumn Afternoon (1962), in Tokyo. Wenders said that it is "not a coincidence that our hero's name is Hirayama," which is the name of the main character in Ozu's last movie, too.