leading Japanese motion-picture studio, the films of which are usually dramas and thrillers for children and rural audiences. Tōei was formed in 1951 from the Tōyoko and Ōizumi Studios and the Tokyo Motion Picture Distribution Company. By 1954 it was producing two full-length features a week by eliminating set changes and concentrating on action pictures.

Tōei was the first to set up a definite program for making wide-screen films and lent exhibitors the money to convert to wide-screen facilities. In the 1950s Tōei entered television broadcasting.