Our study offers a comprehensive overview of Japanese theatrical adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, focusing on the cultural and historical factors shaping his reception in Japan. At the core of our research lies the question of how Japanese directors—and through them the values, aesthetic horizons, and cultural identity of Japanese society—have influenced the interpretation and staging of Shakespeare’s plays. Shakespeare’s Japanese reception represents a two-way process of cultural exchange, where adaptations function as tools of self-reflection. Inspired by the Philther method we analyse four adaptations of Hamlet: Kawakami Otojirō’s 1903 production, Tsubouchi Shōyō’s 1911 staging, Fukuda Tsuneari’s 1955 performance, and Ninagawa Yukio’s 1998 production at London’s Barbican Theatre. These stagings reveal not merely the importation of English literature, but transformations in Japanese society, bridging Western and Japanese traditions while illuminating Japan’s identity, aesthetics, and historical consciousness.