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 Chikushino, Fukuoka 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

Chikushino, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Height

174 cm

Occupation

actor / owarai tarento / television actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Tiger

Blood type

A

Agency

アルファエージェンシー

Active years

1980 -

Works summary

Appearances

428 (1981–2026)

By 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

Debut work

の・ようなもの

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

September 18, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. 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.