Tsukiji Little Theater (TLT) was one origin of the professional dramaturg in Japan. Yoshi Hijikata, one of the founders, studied theater history and direction at Deutsches Theater (DT) in Berlin before TLT was established in 1924 as the first theater building for shingeki, Japanese theater modeled after Western contemporary theater. The model of the building was DT's smaller playhouse, and regarding dramaturgy - as a strategy for the theater to become recognized in society, developed by a staff member called “dramaturg” - was also adopted by TLT, which seems to have practiced that dramaturg function of DT.

The staff of TLT who took the role of dramaturg worked in the Bungeibu (literary section). They gave proposals and opinions which were taken into account seriously when the dramas were selected, and they advised directors when arrangements of the dramas were required. In addition, they edited brochures to be sold at TLT and bookstores that introduced the dramas and provided pages for opinion exchange with readers/audiences.

The tasks of today's dramaturgs in Japan are similar to those mentioned above. While TLT's Bungeibu staff struggled against strict censorship - one of the staff, Sakae Kubo, compared the latter role to that of a politician. However, in contemporary Japan, too, dramaturgs should perhaps perform sometimes as a politician because cultural politics by municipal/governmental organizations seem to have become more and more conservative so that (self-) censorship can easily occur.