Top 10 Japan Actors (Updated: 26.06.2023)
18.12.2019: Shidô Nakamura is going up to the 4. from 5.
Tatsuya Fujiwara is going down to the 5. from 4.
20.12.2019: Shidô Nakamura is going up to the 2. from 4.
Tadanobu Asano is going down to the 3. from 2.
Hiroyuki Sanada is going down to the 4. from 3.
14.02.2020: Togo Igawa is 9. in the list.
Mako is out of the list.
Shin'ichi Chiba is going down to the 10. from 9.
04.03.2020: Yoshiyuki Morishita is 10. in the list.
Shin'ichi Chiba is out of the list.
18.09.2022: Takahiro Sakurai is 9. in the list.
Yoshiyuki Morishita is out of the list.
Togo Igawa is going down to the 10. from 9.
21.06.2023: Tatsuya Fujiwara is going up to the 4. from 5.
Hiroyuki Sanada is going down to the 5. from 4.
25.06.2023: Ryunosuke Kamiki is 10. in the list.
Togo Igawa is out of the list.
Tatsuya Fujiwara is going up to the 2. from 4.
Shidô Nakamura is going down to the 3. from 2.
Tadanobu Asano is going down to the 4. from 3.
26.06.2023: Ryunosuke Kamiki is going up to the 6. from 10.
Ken Watanabe is going down to the 7. from 6.
Kôichi Yamadera is going down to the 8. from 7.
Akio Ôtsuka is going down to the 9. from 8.
Takahiro Sakurai is going down to the 10. from 9.
Tatsuya Fujiwara is going down to the 5. from 4.
20.12.2019: Shidô Nakamura is going up to the 2. from 4.
Tadanobu Asano is going down to the 3. from 2.
Hiroyuki Sanada is going down to the 4. from 3.
14.02.2020: Togo Igawa is 9. in the list.
Mako is out of the list.
Shin'ichi Chiba is going down to the 10. from 9.
04.03.2020: Yoshiyuki Morishita is 10. in the list.
Shin'ichi Chiba is out of the list.
18.09.2022: Takahiro Sakurai is 9. in the list.
Yoshiyuki Morishita is out of the list.
Togo Igawa is going down to the 10. from 9.
21.06.2023: Tatsuya Fujiwara is going up to the 4. from 5.
Hiroyuki Sanada is going down to the 5. from 4.
25.06.2023: Ryunosuke Kamiki is 10. in the list.
Togo Igawa is out of the list.
Tatsuya Fujiwara is going up to the 2. from 4.
Shidô Nakamura is going down to the 3. from 2.
Tadanobu Asano is going down to the 4. from 3.
26.06.2023: Ryunosuke Kamiki is going up to the 6. from 10.
Ken Watanabe is going down to the 7. from 6.
Kôichi Yamadera is going down to the 8. from 7.
Akio Ôtsuka is going down to the 9. from 8.
Takahiro Sakurai is going down to the 10. from 9.
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- Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa got his first big break as an actor when he was cast in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor (1987). A US Army brat, he was born in Tokyo and lived in various cities while growing up. His father was in the army, stationed at Ft. Bragg (NC), Ft. Polk (LA) and Ft. Hood (TX). His mother was an actress from Tokyo. The family finally settled in Southern California, where Tagawa began acting in high school. He was an exchange student in Japan while studying at the University of Southern California. He has recently been involved off-screen in addressing student groups (at SFSU and Stanford). He has also been coaching the martial artist portraying Shang Tsung in the Mortal Kombat Live Tour, and in his free time developing his new form of martial arts, called "Chun Shin."- Actor
- Additional Crew
Tatsuya Fujiwara was born on 15 May 1982 in Chichibu, Japan. He is an actor, known for Battle Royale (2000), Battle Royale II (2003) and Death Note (2006).- Actor
- Director
- Executive
Shidô Nakamura was born on 14 September 1972 in Tokyo, Japan. He is an actor and director, known for Fearless (2006), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) and Red Cliff (2008). He has been married to Saori Adachi since 1 February 2015. He was previously married to Yûko Takeuchi.- Actor
- Director
- Composer
Tadanobu Asano's a Japanese film actor. His father suggested he take on what became his first role in the TV show Kimpachi Sensei at 16. His film debut was Swimming Upstream (1990) though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish (1993). His first critical success in the West was in Kore-eda Hirokazu's Maborosi (1995), in which he played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing his wife & orphaning his infant son. His best known works internationally are the samurai films Taboo (1999) & The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003). It was on the set of Iwai's Picnic (1996) that he met & fell in love with J-Pop idol Chara. They married soon after learning she was pregnant with their first child, Sumire. While best known for characters who are psychologically offbeat, if not downright psychotic (e.g. Kakihara in Ichi the Killer (2001)), he has been described by those who know him as a down-to-earth family man. He has directed commercial TV spots for Chara. Hesistant to identify himself as an actor, he most readily describes himself as a vocalist, referring to Mach 1.67, the band he has w/ director Gakuryû Ishii. He's also an artist & sometimes works as a model, most notably for the Japanese designers Takeo Kikuchi & Jun Takahashi.- Actor
- Producer
- Music Department
Hiroyuki Sanada was born on October 12, 1960 in Tokyo. He made his film debut when he was 5 in Rokyoku komori-uta (1965) (Shin'ichi Chiba played the lead role.) His father died when he was 11. He joined Japan Action Club, organized & run by Sonny Chiba, when he was 12. He 1st became famous as an action star for his role in Yagyu Clan Conspiracy (1978) but is now known as one of the most talented actors in Japan. From 1999-2000, he played the fool in an English-language production of "King Lear" w/ members of the Royal Shakespeare Co as the 1st Japanese actor to act w/ the RSC. He received an honorary MBE (Member of the British Empire) for this work. He & Satomi Tezuka split after 7 years in 1997.- Ryunosuke Kamiki was born in Fujimi. He was diagnosed with a rare disease soon after he was born and was lucky enough to become one of the 1% who survived the disease. To celebrate this miracle, his mother decided to register him as a child actor in an agency to record his growth. He acted in his first TV ad when he was 2 & quickly became one of the best child actors of his generation. He debuted in TV drama when he was 6, playing the stepson of the main character Takeshi Kurosawa (played by Japanese idol Masahiro Nakai) in the 1999's TV drama Good News. He also appeared briefly as a supporting actor in the 1998's drama Happy Mania and as since acted in numerous TV dramas, including Quiz (2000), Namida o fuite (2000), Mukodono! (2001), Wedding Planner(2001), Tantei Kazoku(2002). As he got older, he also started to act in big screen productions such as Insutoru (2004), Otosan no backdrop (2004), Ren'ai-shousetsu (2004) & Survive Style 5+ (2005).
2005 was an important year in his career. He became the sole leading actor of a movie for the first time in Takashi Miike's Yokai daisenso (The Great Yokai War). The film was shown in Venice Film Festival that year, but he missed the red carpet because of jet lag and tiredness from the flight to Venice. His performance is widely praised both in Japan and internationally, winning him the Newcomer of the Year of 29th Japan Academy Prize. He also starred in the TV drama Aikurushii that year & became friends with his co-star Kanata Hongo, a fellow child actor.
In 2007, he got his first sole leading role in a TV drama in detective drama Tantei Gakuen Q, playing alongside with many of his future high school classmates and friends including Mirai Shida & Hey! Say! JUMP's Ryosuke Yamada. He starred in an NHK Asadora (Dondo Hare (2007) for the first time, playing the brother of the leading female character. Other works that year also include Little DJ: Chiisana koi no monogatari, Toku no sora ni kieta and he is the leading stars in all of these film.
Kamiki spent most of the year 2008 shooting the TV drama Kaze no gaaden in Hokkaido. The drama was written by famous Japanese screenwriter So Kuramoto, and Kamiki played the mentally-disabled son of the main character, Sadami Shiratori, who is starred by Kamiki's favourite actor Kiichi Nakai. Kamiki developed a father-and-son kind of friendship w/ Kiichi Nakai during filming.
In 2010, he played one of his most famous characters in the TV series Keizoku 2: SPEC: Juichi Ninomae. His character was so widely loved that the producer of the series tried everything he could to get him to appear in the follow-up movie series of the show. In 2012, he played the famous Japanese tragic hero Minamoto no Yoshitsune in the NHK Taiga drama Taira no Kiyomori. As he also played young Minamoto no Yoshitsune in NHK 2005's Taiga drama Yoshitsune, he literately portrayed the life of Minamoto no Yoshitsune on small screens.
Another important work by Kamiki's the Japanese Academy-Award winning film Kirishima, bukatsu yamerutteyo (The Kirishima Thing) in 2012. While almost the entire young Japanese acting generation shined in the film, he still managed to give an impressive performance as the leading star. He also influenced other young actors, many acting for the first time, to give their best performance as a senior actor.
2013 was another productive year as the first year after he graduated from high school & became a full-time actor. Apart from continuing to act in the SPEC series film & acting in the TV mini-series Kogure shashinkan, he acted alongside Sho Sakurai in the TV drama Kazoku geemu. His performance was so great that he won best supporting actor at the 77th Drama Academy Awards while the highly-praised drama swept the awards. In 2015, he co-starred with Takeru Satoh in the well-received comic-based movie Bakuman as Akito Takagi. While the movie's about 2 high school students working hard as professional Japanese manga artists for Jump Magazine, he has said that Akito Takagi's 1 of the roles that's most like himself, as he has been a long-time manga lover.
He's widely loved & appreciated by many famous Japanese actors as well as screenwriters. He worked w/ well-acclaimed Japanese screenwriter & director, Kankuro Kudo for the 1st time in 2011, playing the main character in the TV drama 11 nin mo iru!. They worked together again in the 2016 film Too Young to Die & for the 2019 NHK Taiga drama Idaten: Tokyo Olympics Banashi.
He has also worked w/ director Keishi Ohtomo several times, who's famous for making good comics-adapted movies. He played Sojiro Seta in the 2011 film Ruroni Kenshin: Kyoto taika-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno) & Ruroni Kenshin: Densetsu no saigo-hen (Rurouni Kenshin: The Legend Ends). As a fan of the original manga series Ruroni Kenshin & Sojiro Seta, he practiced for the role even before he was officially cast for it. He was the 1st choice for Rei Kiriyama, the main character of 3-gatsu no raion zenpen (March Comes in Like a Lion) (2017), even getting a rank for amateur shogi players during his preparation for the role as Rei Kiriyama.
Apart from his acting career, Kamiki has a stunning career as a voice actor. He became 1 of the favorite voice actors of Hayao Miyazaki when he was young, voicing Bo in his Oscar-winning animation movies Spirited Away in 2001. His performance was so good that Miyazaki invited him to work in another well-acclaimed animated movie of Studio Ghibli, Howl's Moving Castle, in 2004. He also played the major character in Ghibli Museum exclusive short film, The Day I Harvested a Planet.
He stated working w/ animation director Hiromasa Yonebayashi while the latter was still working at Studio Ghibli. In 2010, Yonebayashi based the main character Sho, from his directorial debut The Secret World of Arrietty, on Ryunosuke, inviting him to become the voice of the character. After Yonebayashi started his own animation studio, STUDIO PONOC, he invited Ryunosuke, to dub for the main male character, Peter, in the studio's first feature-length animation, Mary and the Witch's Flower in 2017.
Other famous animation directors he has worked w/ includ Mamoru Hosoda & Masayuki Kojima. He voiced the main character of Masayuki Kojima's Piano no mori (Piano Forest) in 2007, playing Mamoru Hosoda as well as the enjoyable & well-received film Sama uozu (Summer Wars) in 2009. He also worked as a voice actor in a Doraemon movie (Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur 2006) and the 2011 animated movie The Princess and the Pilot.
His highlight in his career as a voice actor came in 2016 when he voiced the main character in Makoto Shinkai's widely renowned animated romantic fantasy drama film, Your Name. As his character Taki Tachibana switches bodies with the major female character Mitsuha, he gave a critically acclaimed voice acting performance for both Taki and Mitsuha in Taki's body, winning Best Actor at the 11th Seiyu Awards. The film was a worldwide success at the box office. It garnered widespread acclaim from critics and the general public. It also became one of the best-selling films worldwide and the second highest grossed domestic films in Japanese film history, making him the only actor who starred in all 3 top-grossing Japanese domestic films (The other two are Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle).
He enjoys photographing and has even won an award for his photographs. He's also a big fan of railway & an enthusiastic manga lover.13-10
10-6 - Actor
- Producer
- Additional Crew
Ken Watanabe was born on October 21, 1959 in Uonuma, Japan. Both of his parents were teachers: his mother taught general education and his dad taught calligraphy. He became interested in acting at the age of 24, when a director of England's National Theater Company, where he was studying, told him that acting was his special gift. In 1978, he moved to Tokyo to pursue acting. He drew the attention of the critics when Yukio Ninagawa, a famous Japanese director, chose him for the lead role in one of his plays, even though Ken was still an acting student. He made his first TV appearance in 1982. His big career breakthrough came when he was chosen to play the lead in the Japanese national TV drama series called "Dokugan ryu Masamune". He played a samurai leader hero, making him a household name in Japan. In 1989, he collapsed while filming a movie in Canada due to leukemia. He made a miraculous comeback & co-starred with Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai (2003), which pushed him to the center stage of Hollywood.
Ken has a daughter, model, actress, & singer Anne Watanabe, & a son. He's an avid fan of Hanshin Tigers (Japanese professional baseball team) & Kobe Steel rugby team. He loves noodles.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Koichi Yamadera was born on June 17, 1961 in Shiogama, Japan. He's a graduate of Tohoku Gakuin University & is affiliated w/ Across Entertainment. He's a prolific voice actor that specializes in video games, & TV animation.
His voice-acting debut was in the OVA Megazone 23 as the motorcycle-riding Shinji Nakagawa, while his TV debut was the anime Bosco Adventure as the cowardly but friendly otter. His break-out voice role was Ranma 1/2, in which he played Ryoga Hibiki & the Jusenkyo Guide. That same year, he voiced Shaman in the TV series Granzort. In 1991, he joined forces w/ Toshihiko Seki & Noriko Hidaka to form the acting unit Banana Fritters, which disbanded in 1995.
In October 1997, he became a host on the TV Tokyo children's variety show Oha Suta. In 1994, he married Mika Kanai. They divorced in spring 2006.
He's best known for his roles in Kaiketsu Zorori, the Japanese dub of Full House, Ranma 1/2, Soreike! Anpanman, Brave Exkaiser, Ghost in the Shell, Ghost in the Shell: Innocence , Neon Genesis Evangelion, Cowboy Bebop, the Yatterman remake, Mobile Suit Gundam: Char's Counterattack, Paprika & Vampire Hunter D-Bloodlust.
He's also known for dubbing for Jim Carrey & Eddie Murphy in English-language films.- Actor
- Soundtrack
Akio Ôtsuka was born on 24 November 1959 in Tokyo, Japan. He is an actor, known for Ghost in the Shell (1995), Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) and Paprika (2006). He was previously married to Yôko Sômi.- Actor
- Producer
- Soundtrack
Takahiro Sakurai was born on 13 June 1974 in Okazaki, Japan. He is an actor and producer, known for Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children (2005), Code Geass (2006) and Blame! (2017).11-9