New Video: Japan was co-organized by the American Federation of Arts and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. The exhibition, which toured across the US, presented twenty-three video works by twenty-six artists, all made between 1982 and 1985. It was conceived as a sequel to the first exhibition of Japanese video in the US, Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto, organized by MoMA in 1979, and debuted as part of the larger Close-up of Japan, New York 1985-86, a video festival hosted by MoMA and the Japan Society, New York.
The works in New Video: Japan represented a wide range of styles, from documentation to animation to performance, and an equally wide range of subjects, including festivals, dances, war, and urbanization. Many, however, shared a thematic interest in the interpenetration of art, technology, and everyday life. Artists surveyed included Shouichiro Azuma; Masaki Fujihata; Teiji Furohashi; Daizuburo Harada and Haruhiko Shono; Mako Idemitsu; Mao Kawaguchi and Ayumi Shino; Nobuhiro Kawanaka; Kumiko Kushiyama; Akira Matsumoto; Tetsuo Mizuno; Osamu Nagata; Ko Nakajima; Kunio Noda; Jun Okazaki and Emi Segawa; Noriyuki Okuda; Makoto Saito; Katusya Taka; Shuntaro Tanikawa and Shuji Terayama; Hironori Terai; Naoko Tosa; Morihiro Wada; and Keigo Yamamoto.
The exhibition was accompanied by a catalogue.