Koji Yakusho

Okay, Koji Yakusho is the kind of actor I'd happily watch read a phone book. The man literally worked at a ward office before chasing acting, then took the stage name "Yakusho" (ward office) as a wink at that past life, and somehow that humility is his whole superpower. He doesn't perform so much as quietly exist on screen until the story just starts happening around him. From the goofy salaryman finding ballroom dancing in Shall We Dance? to the toilet-cleaning zen of Perfect Days, he never reaches for flash, never asks you to admire him, and that's exactly why you do. And when he won at Cannes, his instinct was to worry about working conditions back home. Total craftsman, total mensch. One of the few actors I'd call genuinely irreplaceable.

Koji Yakusho (born Koji Hashimoto on January 1, 1956, in Isahaya, Nagasaki) is a Japanese actor who trained at the Mumeijuku acting school under Tatsuya Nakadai, who also gave him his stage name based on his former job at a ward office. He gained wide recognition through the NHK historical drama Tokugawa Ieyasu (1983) and the hit film Shall We Dance? (1996), and earned international acclaim when The Eel (1997), directed by Shohei Imamura, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. He won the Best Actor prize at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival for Perfect Days and tied the all-time record for Japan Academy Prize Best Actor wins with his fourth award in 2024.

Name (English)

Koji Yakusho

Name (Japanese)

橋本広司

Reading

はしもとこうじ

Born

January 1, 1956 (age 70)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Monkey

Origin

Isahaya, Nagasaki, Japan

Blood type

AB

Height

179 cm

Agency

Y.K. Office

Agency history

Mumeijuku (training school, from 1978)

Active years

1980–present

Occupation

Actor / Narrator

High school

Nagasaki Prefectural Omura Technical High School

University

Did not attend university (moved to Tokyo after high school and worked at a ward office)

Debut

1980, television debut in NHK morning serial drama Natchan no Shashinkan

Awards & achievements

• 1997 Japan Academy Prize Best Actor (Shall We Dance?)
• 1998 Japan Academy Prize Best Actor (The Eel)
• 2019 Japan Academy Prize Best Actor (Unleashed / Korô no Chi)
• 2023 Cannes Film Festival Best Actor (Perfect Days)
• 2024 Japan Academy Prize Best Actor (Perfect Days, record-tying 4th win)

Timeline

1. 1956Born in Isahaya, Nagasaki
2. 1978Enrolled in Mumeijuku, the acting school run by Tatsuya Nakadai
3. 1980Television debut in NHK morning serial drama Natchan no Shashinkan
4. 1983Played Oda Nobunaga in the NHK historical drama Tokugawa Ieyasu, drawing widespread attention
5. 1996Starred in the hit film Shall We Dance?
6. 1997The Eel, directed by Shohei Imamura, won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival
7. 2006Appeared in Babel, directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu
8. 2023Won Best Actor at the Cannes Film Festival for Perfect Days, the first Japanese actor to do so in 19 years
9. 2024Won a record-tying fourth Japan Academy Prize Best Actor award

Spouse

Saeko Kawazu (former actress; agency president)

Children

One son (actor)

Hobbies

• Guitar
• Watching combat sports
• Road cycling

Specialties

• Basketball (during junior and senior high school years)

• Official sitehttps://ykoffice.la.coocan.jp/actor/yakusho/profile.html
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/役所広司
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q975146

Tags

• From Nagasaki
• Y.K. Office
• Mumeijuku
• Cannes Best Actor
• Perfect Days
• Japan Academy Prize
• Actor

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.