Denden

If you have watched much Japanese cinema, you know this face and almost certainly not the name. And when you finally learn it, the name is Denden, which somehow makes it harder to remember, not easier. Born Yoshihiro Ogata in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1950, he started out as a comedian before turning to acting, and he has appeared in more than a hundred films since 1981. That number is the whole story. He is less a star than a piece of infrastructure: put him at the edge of a frame and the town in the shot suddenly feels like a place where people actually live. I find that harder to do than carrying a lead role. A comic stage name, and behind it an actor who can make you laugh, then unsettle you, then break your heart, usually without ever moving to the center of the screen.

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.

Name (English)

Denden

Name (Japanese)

でんでん

Reading

でんでん

Born

January 23, 1950 (age 76)

Origin

Nakama, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Height

174 cm

Occupation

actor / owarai tarento / television actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Tiger

Blood type

A

Agency

Alpha Agency

Active years

1980 -

Works summary

Appearances

428 (1981–2026)

By year (titles with a known year)

1981: 2, 1983: 2, 1984: 3, 1985: 2, 1986: 3, 1987: 4, 1988: 1, 1989: 3, 1990: 3, 1991: 9, 1992: 8, 1993: 13, 1994: 5, 1995: 6, 1996: 7, 1997: 12, 1998: 5, 1999: 14, 2000: 10, 2001: 11, 2002: 9, 2003: 12, 2004: 6, 2005: 4, 2006: 10, 2007: 20, 2008: 10, 2009: 12, 2010: 16, 2011: 22, 2012: 13, 2013: 19, 2014: 15, 2015: 13, 2016: 10, 2017: 13, 2018: 11, 2019: 12, 2020: 7, 2021: 3, 2022: 11, 2023: 10, 2024: 12, 2025: 9, 2026: 4, year unknown: 22

Debut work

Something Like It

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denden
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%81%A7%E3%82%93%E3%81%A7%E3%82%93
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11234476

Tags

• Fukuoka Prefecture
• actor
• owarai tarento
• television 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.