Kazuya Shiraishi

Kazuya Shiraishi is the kind of director who refuses to look away. Born in Asahikawa, Hokkaido, in December 1974, he works as both director and screenwriter, and his run of prizes says plenty: Best Director at the Blue Ribbon Awards in 2018 and again in 2019, plus the Nikkan Sports Film Award for Best Director in 2018. Winning the Blue Ribbon two years running is not luck. What I find interesting about him is that his films leave you unsettled rather than satisfied. He works in territory where violence and the underworld sit close to the surface, but he does not stage it as spectacle. The people who do terrible things have reasons, and the reasons are uncomfortable. That refusal to hand the audience an easy verdict is rarer than it sounds. He is still working, still making films, and for a viewer that means keeping your guard up before the lights go down.

Name (English)

Kazuya Shiraishi

Name (Japanese)

白石和彌

Reading

しらいし かずや

Born

December 17, 1974 (age 51)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Tiger

Origin

Asahikawa, Hokkaidō, Japan

Occupation

film director / screenwriter

Awards & achievements

• 2018 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Director
• 2019 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Director
• 2018 Nikkan Sports Film Award for Best Director

• Xhttps://x.com/shiraishikazuya
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazuya%20Shiraishi
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%99%BD%E7%9F%B3%E5%92%8C%E5%BD%8C
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11580151

Tags

• Hokkaidō
• film director
• screenwriter

Last updated

2026-08-07

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