Junji Inagawa

Junji Inagawa, born in Shibuya, Tokyo in 1947, is filed in most people's minds under one word: ghost stories. What I find more interesting is the rest of the résumé. He works as an actor, tarento, comedian, kaidan storyteller and industrial designer — which means the man who became Japan's most recognizable teller of frightening tales came up through comedy. That is not a contradiction. It is the explanation. Horror storytelling and stand-up run on the same engine: timing, control of silence, knowing exactly how long to let a pause sit before you release it. A punchline and a scare are structurally the same move, just aimed at different nerves. Then there is the voice, weathered and conversational, the kind that makes a room feel a few degrees colder within seconds. Being the performer whose name resurfaces every single summer, decade after decade, is a strange and durable kind of fame. Most entertainers would trade a lot for one season they reliably own.

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)

Junji Inagawa

Name (Japanese)

稲川淳二

Reading

いながわ じゅんじ

Born

August 21, 1947 (age 79)

Origin

Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan

Height

167 cm

Occupation

tarento / comedian / seiyū / film director

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Leo / Boar

Works summary

Appearances

207 (1974–2024)

By year (titles with a known year)

1974: 1, 1976: 1, 1981: 1, 1983: 1, 1984: 1, 1985: 1, 1986: 2, 1987: 7, 1988: 2, 1989: 3, 1990: 7, 1991: 5, 1992: 5, 1993: 2, 1994: 1, 1995: 4, 1996: 7, 1997: 7, 1998: 4, 1999: 6, 2000: 7, 2001: 1, 2002: 1, 2003: 4, 2004: 4, 2005: 9, 2006: 9, 2007: 24, 2008: 12, 2009: 4, 2010: 7, 2011: 3, 2012: 2, 2013: 4, 2014: 7, 2015: 1, 2016: 4, 2017: 4, 2020: 4, 2022: 1, 2024: 1, year unknown: 26

Debut work

まんがジョッキー

Filmography / notable works

• Xhttps://x.com/junji_inagawa
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A8%B2%E5%B7%9D%E6%B7%B3%E4%BA%8C
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11596600

Tags

• Tokyo
• tarento
• comedian
• seiyū

Last updated

September 29, 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.