Kiichi Nakai

Kiichi Nakai carries a weight I find hard to imagine. His father was a film star who died when Nakai was two, and the director Yasujiro Ozu gave him his name, so he entered acting already measured against a man he never really knew. He could have coasted on that. Instead he built a career on range, moving between grave samurai roles and shabby, funny, defeated modern men. That comic touch impresses me most, because serious actors usually embarrass themselves reaching for it. He is in his sixties and still widening, which is rarer than any trophy.

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)

Kiichi Nakai

Name (Japanese)

中井貴一

Reading

なかい きいち

Born

September 18, 1961 (age 65)

Origin

Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan

Height

181 cm

Occupation

actor / singer / film actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Ox

Blood type

A

Agency

オフィス中井

Active years

1981 -

University

Seikei University

Awards & achievements

• 2004 Japan Academy Prize for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
• 1983 Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year
• 2020 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Actor

Works summary

Appearances

248 (1981–2026)

By year

1981: 1, 1982: 1, 1983: 7, 1984: 8, 1985: 9, 1986: 5, 1987: 10, 1988: 3, 1989: 4, 1990: 9, 1991: 6, 1992: 4, 1993: 4, 1994: 6, 1995: 5, 1996: 4, 1997: 3, 1998: 3, 1999: 5, 2000: 4, 2001: 8, 2002: 3, 2003: 5, 2004: 6, 2005: 5, 2006: 4, 2007: 5, 2008: 6, 2009: 4, 2010: 6, 2011: 8, 2012: 13, 2013: 10, 2014: 3, 2015: 3, 2016: 9, 2017: 6, 2018: 5, 2019: 3, 2020: 4, 2021: 2, 2022: 2, 2023: 5, 2024: 6, 2025: 4, 2026: 1

Debut work

連合艦隊

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiichi%20Nakai
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%AD%E4%BA%95%E8%B2%B4%E4%B8%80
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1139714

Tags

• Tokyo
• actor
• singer
• film 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.