Acting

Koji Yakusho

Born January 1, 1956 · Isahaya, Japan (age 70)

Kōji Hashimoto (橋本広司, Hashimoto Kōji, born 1 January 1956), known professionally as Kōji Yakusho (役所広司, Yakusho Kōji), is a Japanese actor. He is known internationally for his starring roles in Shall We Dance? (1996), 13 Assassins (2010), The Third Murder (2017), The Blood of Wolves (2018), Under the Open Sky (2020) and The Days (2023). For his performance in Perfect Days (2023), he was awarded …

Known For

Perfect Days

Perfect Days · 2023

Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.

Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha · 2005

Memoirs of a Geisha

MovieDramaRomance

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Belle

MovieAnimationScience Fiction

Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.

Cure

MovieHorrorMystery

A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.

Babel

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

Scarlet

Scarlet · 2025

MovieAnimationAction

After failing to avenge her father's murder, Princess Scarlet, wakes up in the "Land of the Dead." In this world filled with madness, if she does not achieve her revenge against her nemesis and reach the "No End Place," she will become "Void" and cease to exist. Can Scarlet find a way to live at the end of her endless journey?

Mirai

MovieAnimationFamily

Four-year-old Kun struggles with jealousy after his newborn sister, Mirai, begins receiving most of his family’s attention. Retreating to the garden, he encounters Mirai as a teenager from the future and embarks on extraordinary journeys across his family’s past, gradually discovering new perspectives on love, belonging and what it means to become an older brother.

Pulse

MovieHorrorThriller

In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.

Filmography

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Perfect Days

Perfect Days · 2023

Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.

Executive Producer

Memoirs of a Geisha

Memoirs of a Geisha · 2005

Memoirs of a Geisha

MovieDramaRomance

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Nobu

Belle

MovieAnimationScience Fiction

Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.

Suzu's Father (voice)

Cure

MovieHorrorMystery

A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.

Kenichi Takabe

Babel

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

Yasujiro Wataya

Scarlet

Scarlet · 2025

MovieAnimationAction

After failing to avenge her father's murder, Princess Scarlet, wakes up in the "Land of the Dead." In this world filled with madness, if she does not achieve her revenge against her nemesis and reach the "No End Place," she will become "Void" and cease to exist. Can Scarlet find a way to live at the end of her endless journey?

Claudius (voice)

Mirai

MovieAnimationFamily

Four-year-old Kun struggles with jealousy after his newborn sister, Mirai, begins receiving most of his family’s attention. Retreating to the garden, he encounters Mirai as a teenager from the future and embarks on extraordinary journeys across his family’s past, gradually discovering new perspectives on love, belonging and what it means to become an older brother.

Grandfather (voice)

Pulse

MovieHorrorThriller

In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.

Ship Captain

The Boy and the Beast

The Boy and the Beast · 2015

The Boy and the Beast

MovieActionAdventure

Kyuta, a boy living in Shibuya, and Kumatetsu, a lonesome beast from Jutengai, an imaginary world. One day, Kyuta forays into the imaginary world and, as he's looking for his way back, meets Kumatetsu who becomes his spirit guide. That encounter leads them to many adventures.

Kumatetsu (voice)

13 Assassins

13 Assassins · 2010

MovieAdventureDrama

A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.

Shinzaemon Shimada

Tampopo

Tampopo · 1985

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

White Suit Man

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge · 2001

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

MovieFantasyDrama

When a dying friend tells out-of-work salaryman Yosuke about a hidden treasure, he sets off in search of the only clue about its location: a house by a red bridge. What he finds instead is a woman who transcends all his fantasies.

Yosuke Sasano

The Eel

The Eel · 1997

MovieDramaCrime

A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.

Takuro Yamashita

The Third Murder

The Third Murder · 2017

The Third Murder

MovieDramaMystery

A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.

Takashi Misumi

Doppelgänger

Doppelgänger · 2003

MovieComedyScience Fiction

Shortly after hearing from a colleague about a woman whose brother committed suicide after seeing his doppelgänger, a Japanese engineer on the verge of a breakthrough in medical technology is confronted by his own.

Michio Hayasaki

Shall We Dance?

Shall We Dance? · 1996

Shall We Dance?

MovieMusicComedy

A bored accountant spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.

Shohei Sugiyama

The World of Kanako

The World of Kanako · 2014

The World of Kanako

MovieMysteryCrime

When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.

Akikazu Fujishima

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window · 2023

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window

MovieAnimationDrama

This engaging series of childhood recollections tells of an unconventional school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. The school had old railroad cars for classrooms and was run by an extraordinary man – its founder and headmaster, Sōsaku Kobayashi – who deeply valued children's independence, and who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.

Sōsaku Kobayashi (voice)

Suite Dreams

Suite Dreams · 2006

MovieComedyDrama

New Year's Eve at a posh hotel and all should be shipshape. It is not. There is the traditional party, an official ceremony, entertainment and a special dinner planned and yet there is trouble everywhere. An Animal is on the loose, a politician to protect, a prostitute to handle, a bellhop to focus and a few things more.

Heikichi Shindo

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai · 2011

Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai

MovieDramaHistory

A tale of revenge, honor and disgrace, centering on a poverty-stricken samurai who discovers the fate of his ronin son-in-law, setting in motion a tense showdown of vengeance against the house of a feudal lord.

Kageyu

Silk

MovieDramaRomance

French silkworm trader Hervé is married to the beautiful Hélène. When an outbreak of disease ravages European silkworms, Hervé must travel to Japan to retrieve healthy eggs. After a long journey, Hervé finally arrives at a village where he can buy them. He becomes infatuated with a young concubine and goes to great lengths to see her again. But, when war breaks out in Japan, the concubine flees, forcing Hervé to return home to his wife.

Hara Jubei

Oh Lucy!

Oh Lucy! · 2018

MovieComedyDrama

A lonely, chain-smoking office lady in Tokyo falls for her teacher when she decides to take English lessons. When her teacher disappears, she sets out on a journey to find him.

Takeshi Komori / Tom

Children Untold

Children Untold · 2026

Children Untold

War may be over, but for the children of Miwa Nishikawa’s latest film — adapted from her forthcoming novel — survival has only begun.

Jinbe Yamai / Jinbei

Tokyo Sonata

Tokyo Sonata · 2008

The winds of change blow as a family grapples with unemployment, alienation, mistrust and a lack of communication. When a Japanese salaryman loses his job to outsourcing to China, it's simply the beginning of a series of shattering incidents, leading to the implosion of the family unit.

Robber

Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen

Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen · 1990

Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen

SeriesMysterySci-Fi & Fantasy

Vivant

SeriesDramaCrime

Yusuke Nogi of Ryosho's Energy Development Division said that 10 times the official down payment was mistakenly sent to GFL, a local infrastructure company involved in a solar energy plant to be built in the Balkan Republic in Central Asia. Suspected of involvement, he heads to the Balkan Republic to collect the difference of $90 million. With the cooperation of his CIA friend Sam, Nogi obtained information that the terrorist al-Zaer had laundered the full amount of the contract money into diamonds and brought it out.

Nogōn Beki

Chotchan

Chotchan · 1987

The 38th NHK Asadora. Based on the autobiography of Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's mother.

神谷容

Idaten: Tokyo Olympics Story

Idaten: Tokyo Olympics Story · 2019

Idaten: Tokyo Olympics Story

SeriesDramaWar & Politics

Traces Japan’s history with the Olympic games and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics for viewers before Tokyo hosts the event again in 2020. The first half tells the story of marathon runner Kanakuri Shiso, who became one of the first Japanese nationals to participate in the Olympics in Stockholm in 1912. The second half features Tabata Masaji, the coach who laid the foundations of Japanese swimming and helped bring the games to Tokyo for the first time in 1964.

嘉納治五郎

THE DAYS

THE DAYS · 2023

SeriesDramaCrime

Blamed by some, hailed as heroes by others, those involved with Fukushima Daiichi face a deadly, invisible threat — an unprecedented nuclear disaster.

Masao Yoshida

Back of Father

Back of Father · 2014

SeriesDramaFamily

A 10-part omnibus drama by 10 different scriptwriters on the theme of fathers and their sons and daughters.

Aoki Sosuke

Inochi

The drama begins in August 1945, three days after the end of the Pacific war. A freight train completely jam-packed with passengers heads for Aomori from devastated Tokyo. On the train is Takahara Miki and her sister Sachi. Miki and Sachi are the daughters of a wealthy landlord living in a village in the Tsugaru area in Aomori prefecture, but they have been living in Tokyo since before the war to attend school. After seeing her village does not have a doctor, Miki is determined to become a rural doctor.

Naohiko Hamamura

Lethal Three

Lethal Three · 1987

A wandering samurai, ronin, and ninja; meet by chance repeatedly and reluctantly team up to solve the problems of innocent villagers along the way.

Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu · 1983

Tokugawa Ieyasu

SeriesDramaWar & Politics

The story chronicles the life of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Oda Nobunaga

Rikuoh

A CEO struggling to maintain his small sock business risks the company's future with a new challenge — creating a line of running shoes.

Koichi Miyazawa

水曜ドラマ宮本武蔵

水曜ドラマ宮本武蔵 · 1984

水曜ドラマ宮本武蔵

SeriesAction & Adventure

宮本武蔵

Hana no Ran

Hana no Ran · 1994

The story takes place during the Muromachi period of Ancient Japan, in the midst of the Ōnin War. The main character in the series is Tomiko Hino, a historical figure with a bad reputation because of her actions to rebuild Kyoto after the Ōnin War.

Pension Metsä

Pension Metsä · 2021

SeriesDramaComedy

Tenko runs a pension alone. The pension is located in a forest in Nagano, that is full of the Japanese larch tree. She interacts with her guests, who come from all walks of life.

Tsuneki

The Life of Bangaku

The Life of Bangaku · 2002

The Life of Bangaku

Master swordsman Bangaku Ajigawa is a Ronin with an honest heart, and hates deception. With no family or money, he lives by his own rules. Bangaku’s one treasure and reason to live is his master sword, Hekimitsuhira. But because of it, people around him regularly lie and deceive him. This light-hearted samurai drama follows the comedic life of Bengaku. Produced by Eizou Kyoto, this drama is to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Birth of Director Kon Ichikawa.

Ajigawa Bantake

The Battle of Port Arthur: Will Love Die?

The Battle of Port Arthur: Will Love Die? · 1981

The Battle of Port Arthur: Will Love Die?

SeriesWar & PoliticsDrama

An epic of love and death that depicts how soldiers and ordinary people lived and fought during the Russo-Japanese War, when Japan's very existence was at stake in the face of the great power of Russia.

The Password is Courage

The Password is Courage · 2000

The Password is Courage

The story takes place in a small rural village surrounded by beautiful nature. However, it is about to be destroyed by a waste disposal plant. Something must be done. The villagers rise up. They get a lawyer from Tokyo to help fight alongside them. Only that he's not a real lawyer but a washed-up actor (Yakusho Kōji), who once played a lawyer on TV.

Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?

Did Someone Happen to Mention Me? · 2026

Did Someone Happen to Mention Me?

Gen Takasegawa, the first Japanese actor to play the lead role at London's Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, has been unable to return to Japan for some time. After two years, he finally makes his way back home, only to find out that he is suddenly and completely forgotten by the entire world.

Gen Takasegawa

Matrilineal Family

Matrilineal Family · 2021

Matrilineal Family

~~ Adapted from the novel of the same title by Yamasaki Toyoko (山崎豊子)

Kazo Yajima

Hacchōbori Torimono Banashi

Hacchōbori Torimono Banashi · 1993

Hacchōbori Torimono Banashi

A jidaieki drama where a hard-nosed doshin, Shinpachiro Kariya, takes on difficult cases with exquisite teamwork under the supervision of a young magistrate.

Takeda Shingen

Takeda Shingen · 1991

During the 16th Century Japan was involved in the Sengoku Period, an era of Civil Wars and the powerful Warlords who fought them. One of the earliest and strongest of these men was the Great Lord TAKEDA Shingen. A tremendous military genius, his battles are the stuff of legend.

Takeda Shingen

Middle-aged Bachelors

Middle-aged Bachelors · 1997

Middle-aged Bachelors

Three close friends realize, at the age of 40, that maybe it's time to think seriously about getting married. Employed by an advertising agency, each struggles with his own weakness-one consistently strikes out with women, while the second can't seem to break his attachments to his mother, and the third is an unabashed playboy. This adult comedy exposes the humorous views and sobering misconceptions of marriage by single men today.

Ties: A Miraculous Colt

Ties: A Miraculous Colt · 2017

Ties: A Miraculous Colt

SeriesDramaFamily

Based on novel "Kizuna ~ Aru Jinba no Monogatari~” by Akihiro Shimada (published from June, 2012 to December, 2012 in horse racing portal site ‘netkeiba.com’).

Masayuki Matsushita

Kinagashi Bugyō

Kinagashi Bugyō · 1981

Kinagashi Bugyō

Koheita, a newly appointed magistrate, never shows his face in the magistrate's office, instead spending his time in the 'Horisoto', a den of evil where anything goes, from theft to prostitution to murder. However, this man is about to clean up the city in an unconventional way!

Momi no Ki wa Nokotta: Ranshin

Momi no Ki wa Nokotta: Ranshin · 1983

Momi no Ki wa Nokotta: Ranshin

A human drama based on the "Date Riots".