Akihiro Miwa

I honestly can't think of anyone quite like Akihiro Miwa, and that's kind of the whole point. The second you try to file him under "singer" or "actor," he's already slipped the label and floated somewhere above it. I get chills from his voice work too, those Studio Ghibli roles where he can own an entire scene with sound alone. And when he sang or just talked about life on television, he handed you these spine-straightening lines that landed like little blessings. He was less a celebrity than a living national treasure, and his death in June 2026 left a real hole, and a flighty ordinary guy like me can really only stand back and admire.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Akihiro Miwa was a Japanese entertainer born on May 15, 1935, in Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture. A multifaceted artist spanning acting, singing, voice performance, and theatrical direction, Miwa was widely recognized as a singular and enduring presence in Japanese entertainment culture; he died on June 20, 2026. He is known for voice roles in acclaimed animated films and for performances of the song "Yoitomake no Uta," which became a landmark piece of Japanese popular music. Miwa attended Kunitachi College of Music Junior and Senior High School and has received the Golden Arrow Award.

Name (English)

Akihiro Miwa

Name (Japanese)

美輪明宏

Reading

みわ あきひろ

Born

May 15, 1935 – June 20, 2026

Origin

Nagasaki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Actor / Singer-songwriter / Voice actor / Director / Drag queen

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Boar

Junior high

Kunitachi College of Music Junior High School

High school

Kunitachi College of Music Senior High School

Awards & achievements

• Golden Arrow Award (year unknown)

Works summary

Appearances

188 (1957–2025)

By year (titles with a known year)

1957: 4, 1958: 4, 1959: 8, 1960: 3, 1961: 1, 1962: 1, 1963: 1, 1964: 2, 1965: 1, 1966: 1, 1967: 3, 1968: 5, 1969: 5, 1970: 5, 1971: 3, 1973: 5, 1975: 1, 1976: 2, 1977: 2, 1978: 2, 1979: 3, 1980: 2, 1981: 1, 1983: 2, 1984: 1, 1985: 1, 1987: 1, 1989: 1, 1991: 2, 1992: 1, 1994: 1, 1995: 2, 1996: 1, 1997: 2, 1998: 1, 1999: 1, 2001: 1, 2002: 2, 2003: 2, 2004: 2, 2005: 4, 2006: 10, 2007: 1, 2008: 3, 2009: 3, 2010: 6, 2011: 4, 2012: 3, 2013: 11, 2014: 8, 2015: 3, 2016: 5, 2017: 3, 2018: 3, 2019: 2, 2020: 2, 2021: 4, 2022: 1, 2023: 1, 2025: 2, year unknown: 20

Debut work

メケ・メケ/ジェルソ・ミーナ

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://o-miwa.co.jp
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%BE%8E%E8%BC%AA%E6%98%8E%E5%AE%8F
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1076203

Tags

• From Nagasaki Prefecture
• Actor
• Singer-songwriter
• Voice actor

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.