Trivia

Original series director Ishirô Honda declined Toho's offer to direct this film, opting instead to work with Akira Kurosawa on his film Ran (1985). Honda had been dishearten by what became of the Godzilla series but he did recommend that Kôji Hashimoto be named the film's director. Hashimoto had been Honda's assistant director throughout the 60's and was enthusiastic to make a Godzilla film that returned to the series' true origins, hearkening back to Honda's original film.

Godzilla's height had to be raised from 50 meters to 80 meters in this film. In the original, Godzilla towered over the Tokyo since there were very few tall structures in the city as a result of WWII bombings. In the decades since, the Tokyo skyline grew to include various skyscrapers that would dwarf Godzilla in size. The staff had to make the monster bigger so it could stand out. Subsequent films would increase Godzilla's size to 100 meters.

During Godzilla's rampage, Godzilla makes his way through some of the same locations as the original film. Case in point is the scene in which Godzilla smashes into the Yurakucho Mullion Building after his foot crashes through concrete. Thirty years earlier, this had been site of the old Nichigeki Theater that Godzilla destroyed in the original. In fact the staff had designed it so that the floor Godzilla tears into was actually the location of the newly created Toho Cinemas Nichigeki. Godzilla also makes his way across the Tokyo Expressway, which in the original film, had been a river with a bridge that Godzilla walked over.

Although this is first entry in what eventually became the Heisei series of Godzilla films, it is actually the last Showa Godzilla film since it was produced and released during Japan's Showa period, which ended in 1989. The film was retroactively added to the Heisei series as it shares continuity with the following seven films, which were originally known as the VS series. The following film, Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989), would be the first film actually made during the Heisei era, which began that year.

Composer Reijirô Koroku wrote the score in about four days.

Hiroshi Kamayatsu: Long-haired Christian priest aboard the Shinkansen Bullet Train (while it is being plucked off its tracks by Godzilla), smiling while seeing the monster's visage through the train window (possibly because he sees Godzilla as "God"). Kamayatsu, nicknamed "Monsieur," was a singer/guitarist in the Japanese rock bands The Spiders and Vodka Collins. His scene was cut from the U.S. version, Godzilla 1985 (1985).