Toho had created a self-imposed ban on the film, and is thus not available on home video in Japan, due to the negative manner in which the Burakumin (not the Ainu, as is commonly believed) are portrayed, as inbred mutant savages. The film is, however, screened at film festivals showing the works of director Ishiro Honda.
Future director Kihachi Okamoto not only served as Ishiro Honda's chief assistant director, he was drafted into appearing in front of the camera as an extra playing one of the searchers.
For the American version of the film, the American company Distributors Corporation of America added English-language scenes and narration. The American version of the film contains the original Japanese footage with scenes of John Carradine as John Rayburn explaining the Snowman to his colleagues. The American version was released in the United States through DCA (Distributors Corporation of America) on December 10, 1958 as the bottom half of a double feature with Monster from Green Hell (1957). This version also removes the original film's score. The American version features a scene of Carradine unveiling the young Snowman's carcass on a morgue slab, which involved the actual costume sent by Toho to the U.S. for filming. The added U.S. sequences were directed by Kenneth G. Crane.
Before Godzilla had been released, Toho had already planned this film as it's next monster movie with Ishiro Honda attached to direct it. This was part of a mini-cycle of topical films influenced by Eric Shipton's photographs of large footprints found in the snow at Mount Everest in 1951. These included the American film The Snow Creature and the British film The Abominable Snowman.
Writer Shigeru Kayama was hired to write the original script and completed his treatment on October 16, 1954. The film began under the working title of S-Project with the production being officially announced in November with the title Snowman of the Alps. Screenwriter Takeo Murata began working on the project at the same time as Godzilla Raids Again. Director Ishiro Honda went to Tokyo to shoot Half Human's scenes with snow and on returning found that special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya was busy working on Godzilla Raids Again, which put Half Human on hold while Honda began filming Oen-san. Half Human resumed filming in June and July and was released on August 14.