Yusaku Matsuda

Okay, let me gush for a second: Yusaku Matsuda is one of those actors who walks into frame and the whole room tightens up. I first met him as the doomed Jeans cop in Taiyo ni Hoero, screaming "Nanja korya!" as he dies, and honestly it ruined me a little. The man could have coasted on those cheekbones and that 183cm of cool, but no, he kept throwing his whole body at every role, the wobbly noir charm of Tantei Monogatari one year, the creepily intense tutor in The Family Game the next. Then he muscles into Hollywood as the villain in Black Rain while quietly dying of cancer, and he's gone at 40. Reckless, magnetic, gone too soon, and still talked about decades later. That's the whole legend right there.

Yusaku Matsuda (1949–1989) was a Japanese actor and singer born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, who rose to fame through his breakout role as the "Jeans Detective" in the Nippon TV drama Taiyō ni Hoero! (1973). Known for his intense, physically committed performances, he became a leading action star of Japanese cinema in the late 1970s and early 1980s, winning Best Actor honors at the Kinema Junpo Awards and the Hochi Film Awards in 1983. He made his Hollywood debut in Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989), appearing as the villain despite battling terminal bladder cancer, and passed away on November 6, 1989, at the age of 40.

Name (English)

Yusaku Matsuda

Name (Japanese)

松田優作

Reading

まつだゆうさく

Born

September 21, 1949 – November 6, 1989

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Virgo / Ox

Origin

Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi, Japan

Blood type

A

Height

183 cm

Agency

Deceased (portrait rights: Central Arts / character licensing: Office Saku)

Agency history

Bungakuza Acting School (through 1973)
Central Arts (1981–1989)

Active years

1973–1989

Occupation

Actor / Singer

Elementary school

Private

Junior high

Private

High school

Honan High School (night division, graduated)

University

Kanto Gakuin University, Faculty of Literature (withdrew); Bungakuza Acting School (completed 1973)

Debut

1973 — Nippon TV drama Taiyō ni Hoero!, as "Jeans Detective" Shibata Jun

Awards & achievements

• 1983 Kinema Junpo Best Actor (The Family Game, Detective Story)
• 1983 Hochi Film Award Best Actor (The Family Game, Detective Story)
• 1989 12th Japan Academy Award Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role (Arashi ga Oka, Hana no Ran)
• 1990 13th Japan Academy Award Special Award (posthumous)
• 1990 Yokohama Film Festival Special Jury Award (posthumous)

Timeline

1. 1949Born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi
2. 1973Broke through as the Jeans Detective in Taiyō ni Hoero!
3. 1975First marriage (to Michiko Matsuda; divorced 1981)
4. 1977Returned to television in Daitokai PART II
5. 1979Starred in Resurrection of the Golden Wolf, establishing himself as an action star
6. 1983Won Kinema Junpo Best Actor and multiple other awards for The Family Game and Detective Story
7. 1983Married Miyuki Matsuda
8. 1985Took on a literary role in Sorekara (And Then), directed by Yoshimitsu Morita
9. 1989Appeared in Hollywood film Black Rain, directed by Ridley Scott
10. 1989Died on November 6 from bladder cancer with lumbar metastasis, age 40

Spouse

Michiko Matsuda (1975–1981, author) / Miyuki Matsuda (1983–1989, actress)

Children

3 children: eldest son Ryuhei Matsuda, second son Shota Matsuda, eldest daughter Yuki Matsuda

Parents

Private

Siblings

Private

Hobbies

• Jazz listening
• Mahjong

Specialties

• Action
• Physically immersive acting

Motto

Private

• Official sitehttp://www.office-saku.com/artists/yusaku_matsuda.html
• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/yusaku_matsuda_official/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%9D%BE%E7%94%B0%E5%84%AA%E4%BD%9C

Tags

• From Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi
• Actor
• Singer
• Taiyō ni Hoero!
• The Family Game
• Black Rain
• Showa Cinema
• Central Arts

Last updated

2026-06-02

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