Hidetoshi Nishijima

Okay, here's the thing about Hidetoshi Nishijima: I came in expecting a handsome, quietly intense leading man, and yeah, he's that, but he's so much more interesting than the pretty face suggests. The man can carry an entire frame with stillness alone. Watch him in Drive My Car and tell me silence has ever said that much. Then he turns around and plays Shiro, the cardigan-wearing salaryman cooking dinner in What Did You Eat Yesterday, and pulls it off with total ease. That range floors me. And honestly, the detail that wins me over is that this brooding, restrained guy is secretly obsessed with sweets, Mont Blanc and donuts and all. For me, Nishijima is that rare actor who never grandstands but quietly nails everything he touches.

Hidetoshi Nishijima is a Japanese actor born on March 29, 1971, in Hachioji, Tokyo. He made his acting debut in 1992 in the TV drama Hagure Keiji Junjōha V and rose to prominence through films directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Takeshi Kitano. His lead performance in Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Drive My Car (2021) earned international acclaim, including the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor — the first Asian actor to receive the honor — and the Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role. In 2023 he signed with the major Hollywood talent agency CAA, and in May 2024 he became an independent freelance artist.

Name (English)

Hidetoshi Nishijima

Name (Japanese)

西島秀俊

Reading

にしじまひでとし

Born

March 29, 1971 (age 55)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Boar

Origin

Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan

Blood type

A

Height

178 cm

Agency

Freelance (independent)

Agency history

Watanabe Productions (1990s)
Quarter Tone (c. 2002 – May 2024)

Active years

1992–present

Occupation

Actor / Voice Actor / Narrator

Elementary school

Hachioji Municipal Nagafusa Elementary School

Junior high

Toho Junior High School

High school

Toho High School

University

Yokohama National University, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Production Engineering (withdrew)

Debut

1992 — TV drama Hagure Keiji Junjōha V (TV Asahi); discovered by scouting

Awards & achievements

• 1999 9th Japan Professional Movie Awards — Best Actor (Ningen Gōkaku)
• 2008 30th Yokohama Film Festival — Best Supporting Actor (Kyūka)
• 2018 42nd Japan Academy Film Prize — Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role (Chiri Tsubaki)
• 2022 56th National Society of Film Critics Award — Best Actor (Drive My Car; first Asian actor to receive this award)
• 2022 45th Japan Academy Film Prize — Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Drive My Car)

Timeline

1. 1992Acting debut in TV drama Hagure Keiji Junjōha V
2. 1993Appeared in Fuji TV drama Asunaro Hakusho and gained wide attention
3. 1999Film debut as lead in Ningen Gōkaku (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
4. 2002Lead role in Dolls (dir. Takeshi Kitano); career turning point
5. 2011First lead role in a commercial TV drama series: Boku to Star no 99 Nichi (Fuji TV)
6. 2014Announced marriage in November to a private individual 16 years his junior
7. 2021Lead in Drive My Car (dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi); film won four awards including Best Screenplay at the 74th Cannes Film Festival
8. 2022Drive My Car won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film; Nishijima received the Japan Academy Film Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
9. 2023Signed with major Hollywood talent agency CAA
10. 2024Left Quarter Tone on May 31 and became an independent freelance artist

Spouse

Private individual (married November 2014)

Children

First son (born April 2016), second son (born October 2018)

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Hobbies

• Watching films
• Visiting sweets shops
• Going to the gym

Specialties

• Guitar (band experience)
• Basketball

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/hidetoshi_nishijima.official/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A5%BF%E5%B3%B6%E7%A7%80%E4%BF%8A

Tags

• Actor
• Hachioji, Tokyo
• Yokohama National University
• Drive My Car
• Japan Academy Film Prize
• Cannes Film Festival
• What Did You Eat Yesterday?
• Freelance

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.