JAPAN – Himeji Castle // You Only Live Twice (1967)

Himeji Castle is a Japanes national treasure – and a beautiful James Bond location. Though the crew couldn’t finish filming due to an outrage.

Why Bond was here
James Bond (Sean Connery) and Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba), head of the Japanese secret service, try to uncover a sinister plan by evildoer Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Donald Pleasance). Blofeld hides in a remote volcano, and happily steals spaceships. To infiltrate the volcano, Bond and Tanakas ninja army boost themselves first. At the famous Himeji castle all prep themselves in some secret service induced martial arts training.

How you gonna get there
Himeji Castle is the gemstone of the city – and right in its center. You may go there by car or take a shinkansen bullet train to get to Himeji from other cities. It is just a short ten minutes walk from the train station towards the castle entry.

There are several spots at the huge compond, that you can recognize in “You Only Live Twice”. Here is a short summary:

• Before you enter the castle, you are at Sannomaru Hiroba, the area in front of the keep. This is where Bond’s helicopter lands.
• On the way to the main keep, Dai-tenshu, there a walled paths. The second one, Ro-no-mon, is the place, where Tanaka talkes to Bond about his transformation into “a Japanese”.
• The ninja training action was filmed at the exit of the main keep and in front of the sloping stone wall.
• Outside Bizen-mon Gate is the alley, where the shuriken scene was shot.
• More interactions between Bond and Tanaka had been filmed in the garden of Nishi-no-maru. Look out for the little well, to recognize the place.

Impressions from our visit at Himeji Castle from “You Only Live Twice”

Good to know
Himeji Castle is a national treasure in Japan. Additionally it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can imagine, that the Japanese had been very sensitive during filming in 1966. Thus the producers had to obtain special permission from the Japanese government and proceeded very carefully. But an outrage was on, when photographs appeared in the Japanese media of the shuriken training scene. So many believed, the film crew damaged the precious castle when throwing ninja stars at the walls.

That wasn’t the case. The crew used a fake wall to safe the monument, but the public opinion couldn’t be changed. Still, the filmmakers were evicted. Since they needed some more scenes, the crew moved on to Tokyo to fake the rest. You can recognize the gardens of the Hotel New Otani – that doubles for the Osato Headquarter – in some of the ninja fighting scenes.

We visited Himeji as part of our van tour – and stayed overnight directly at the parking lot vis-a-vis to the entry. So we had a magnificent sight in the evening and then early on for sunrise. Himeji Castle is dubbed Shirasagijo, “White Heron”. And the name is more that fitting. Another bonus besides the view: We could get into the castle as early as the door opened. And we highly recommend it, as the place filles up with visitors till noon.

© 2026 Huntingbond (1,3,gallery), © 1967 Danjaq S.A. (2)