Kenji Sawada

Okay, Julie. Kenji Sawada is one of those names where, even if you only know the era through grainy footage, you can feel the heat coming off him. He came up fronting The Tigers in the Group Sounds boom, then went solo and basically wrote the book on Showa-era male glamour, all theatrical costumes, smoldering swagger, and that famous bit of flicking his hat into the crowd on "Katte ni Shiyagare." But what I love is that he never coasted on the pretty-boy thing. The guy went and played an unhinged nuclear lunatic in "The Man Who Stole the Sun," and decades later picked up serious acting prizes for "The Zen Diary." And when he canceled that arena show over the turnout, I had to laugh, because of course he did. Aging into himself, belly and all, still standing tall and refusing to bend his aesthetic one millimeter. That's the whole appeal. A real, stubborn, no-compromise star to the very end.

Kenji Sawada, widely known by his nickname "Julie," is one of Japan's most celebrated pop icons, who rose to fame in 1967 as the lead vocalist of the Group Sounds band The Tigers. After the band's dissolution in 1971, he launched a prolific solo career that produced multiple Japan Record Award-winning singles, including "Katte ni Shiyagare" in 1977, which drew a television audience rating of 50.8%. In addition to music, he has starred in numerous films, earning acting recognition most recently with the 77th Mainichi Film Concours Best Actor Award and the 96th Kinema Junpo Best Actor Award for the 2022 film Tsuchi wo Kurau Junikagetsu. His solo singles have sold a total of 12.41 million copies.

Name (English)

Kenji Sawada

Name (Japanese)

澤田研二

Reading

さわだけんじ

Born

June 25, 1948 (age 78)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Cancer / Rat

Origin

Tsunoi Village, Iwami District, Tottori Prefecture, Japan (now Tsunoi, Tottori City)

Blood type

A

Height

171 cm

Agency

Anima Publishing Co., Ltd. (ANIMA)

Agency history

Watanabe Productions (The Tigers era)
Watanabe Kikaku (PYG era)
CO-CóLO Corporation (until February 2023)

Active years

1967–present

Occupation

Singer / Actor / Lyricist / Composer

Elementary school

Kyoto Municipal Daisankinrin Elementary School

Junior high

Kyoto Municipal Okazaki Junior High School

High school

Kyoto Prefectural Kamigyo High School (did not graduate)

University

Did not attend university

Debut

Debuted in 1967 as lead vocalist of the Group Sounds band The Tigers; began solo career in 1971

Awards & achievements

• 1972 — 14th Japan Record Award, Best Vocal Performance ("Yurusarenai Ai")
• 1973 — 4th Japan Kayo Taisho Award ("Kiken na Futari")
• 1977 — 19th Japan Record Award ("Katte ni Shiyagare")
• 1977 — 8th Japan Kayo Taisho Award ("Katte ni Shiyagare")
• 1978 — 20th Japan Record Award, Best Vocal Performance ("Love (Dakishimetai)")
• 1980 — 3rd Japan Academy Prize, Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (The Man Who Stole the Sun)
• 1980 — Hochi Film Award, Best Actor (The Man Who Stole the Sun)
• 2023 — 77th Mainichi Film Concours, Best Actor (Tsuchi wo Kurau Junikagetsu)
• 2023 — 96th Kinema Junpo Best Ten, Best Actor (Tsuchi wo Kurau Junikagetsu)

Timeline

1. 1948Born in Tsunoi Village, Iwami District, Tottori Prefecture; raised in Kyoto from age 3
2. 1967Debuted as lead vocalist of Group Sounds band The Tigers
3. 1971The Tigers disbanded; joined supergroup PYG; solo debut single "Kimi wo Nosete"
4. 1973"Kiken na Futari" reached No. 1 on the Oricon chart; won Japan Kayo Taisho Award
5. 1977"Katte ni Shiyagare" won the Japan Record Award; television broadcast drew a 50.8% audience rating
6. 1979Starred in film The Man Who Stole the Sun; won Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Actor
7. 1989Married actress Yuko Tanaka at Izumo Grand Shrine
8. 1995Declared self-produced status; produced all subsequent albums himself
9. 2019Cancelled a Saitama Super Arena concert shortly before showtime, citing ticket sales below 80% of capacity
10. 2022Starred in film Tsuchi wo Kurau Junikagetsu; won Mainichi Film Concours and Kinema Junpo Best Actor Awards the following year

Spouse

Yuko Tanaka (married 1989, current); former wife: Emi Ito (divorced 1987)

Children

One son from first marriage; no children with Yuko Tanaka

Hobbies

• Baseball (childhood; junior high school team captain)
• Karate (high school)

Specialties

• Vocals
• Stage performance

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttp://www.co-colo.com/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B2%A2%E7%94%B0%E7%A0%94%E4%BA%8C

Tags

• Singer
• Actor
• Group Sounds
• The Tigers
• Julie
• Showa era
• Japan Record Award
• Tottori

Last updated

2026-06-02

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.