Mariko Kaga

Mariko Kaga won a newcomer award at nineteen and was mythologised almost immediately as Japanese cinema's beautiful troublemaker. What interests me is everything that came after the myth. Most performers canonised that young quietly disappear in their thirties; she did not. A Blue Ribbon for supporting actress in 1981 and the Kinuyo Tanaka Award in 2014 describe a woman who kept converting fame into actual craft, decade after decade. She has also stayed famously blunt, and I suspect that is temperament rather than media strategy, which is precisely why it has lasted. Born in Tokyo in 1943, and still a name that lands without any explanation attached.

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)

Mariko Kaga

Name (Japanese)

加賀まりこ

Reading

かが まりこ

Born

December 11, 1943 (age 82)

Origin

Tokyo, Japan

Height

156 cm

Occupation

actor / tarento / film actor

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Goat

Blood type

O

Active years

1960 -

Awards & achievements

• 1963 Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year
• 2014 Kinuyo Tanaka Award
• 1981 Blue Ribbon Awards for Best Supporting Actress

Works summary

Appearances

476 (1962–2026)

By year (titles with a known year)

1962: 7, 1963: 12, 1964: 10, 1965: 11, 1966: 4, 1967: 7, 1968: 9, 1969: 6, 1970: 9, 1971: 12, 1972: 12, 1973: 13, 1976: 7, 1977: 10, 1978: 7, 1979: 6, 1980: 9, 1981: 18, 1982: 20, 1983: 10, 1984: 16, 1985: 15, 1986: 14, 1987: 12, 1988: 7, 1989: 12, 1990: 6, 1991: 5, 1992: 11, 1993: 6, 1994: 5, 1995: 5, 1996: 4, 1997: 8, 1998: 8, 1999: 5, 2000: 6, 2001: 4, 2002: 5, 2003: 2, 2004: 5, 2005: 5, 2006: 2, 2007: 5, 2008: 5, 2009: 6, 2010: 4, 2011: 4, 2012: 2, 2013: 4, 2014: 2, 2015: 2, 2017: 2, 2018: 2, 2019: 2, 2021: 1, 2024: 1, 2025: 2, 2026: 2, year unknown: 63

Debut work

潮騒

Filmography / notable works

• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariko%20Kaga
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A0%E8%B3%80%E3%81%BE%E3%82%8A%E3%81%93
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q11399641

Tags

• Tokyo
• actor
• tarento
• film actor

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. 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.