Koji Yakusho

Kōji Yakusho, born Kōji Hashimoto on January 1, 1956, is an acclaimed Japanese actor. Internationally, he is widely recognized for his performances in films such as Shall We Dance?, Cure, 13 Assassins, The Third Murder, The Blood of Wolves, Under the Open Sky, and the series The Days. He won the prestigious Best Actor award at the 76th Cannes Film Festival for his leading performance in the 2023 film Perfect Days.

Raised in Isahaya, Nagasaki, Yakusho was the youngest of five brothers. Following his graduation from Nagasaki Prefectural High School of Technology in 1974, he was employed at a municipal ward office in Tokyo, known as a kuyakusho, from which he derived his professional name. In 1976, after attending a production of Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths featuring Tatsuya Nakadai, he was inspired to pursue acting. He auditioned for Nakadai's Mumeijuku acting studio in early 1978, securing one of only four spots available out of 800 applicants.

Yakusho achieved widespread popularity on television in 1983 after landing the role of Oda Nobunaga in the year-long NHK historical drama Tokugawa Ieyasu. He subsequently starred in a TV adaptation of Miyamoto Musashi from 1984 to 1985 and played the character Kuji Shinnosuke in the jidaigeki series Sanbiki ga Kiru!. His film career gained traction with a key role in Juzo Itami's 1986 production Tampopo. In 1988, he received a special cinema award from the Japanese Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, continuing to act across television and film throughout the 1990s.

The mid-1990s marked a major turning point in his international and domestic profile. He starred as a exhausted businessman in Masayuki Suo's 1996 box-office hit Shall We Dance?, which ignited a ballroom dance trend in Japan and became a notable commercial success overseas. Shortly after, he led Shohei Imamura's 1997 film The Eel, which earned the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. During this period, he also starred in the hit drama Lost Paradise and won the Hochi Film Award for Best Actor for his role in Bounce Ko Gals.

Yakusho built a long-standing creative relationship with horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, starring in works such as Cure, License to Live, Seance, Charisma, Pulse, Doppelganger, Retribution, and Tokyo Sonata. He broadened his international presence with parts in major foreign releases, including Memoirs of a Geisha and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel. In 2009, Yakusho expanded his artistic work by making his directorial debut with the feature film Toad's Oil.

In the 2010s, Yakusho appeared in Takashi Miike's samurai features 13 Assassins and Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai, as well as the 2011 historical drama Rengō Kantai Shirei Chōkan: Yamamoto Isoroku, where he portrayed Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. His later work includes starring roles in The Blood of Wolves and Wim Wenders' Perfect Days. In 2023, alongside his Cannes victory, Yakusho was named the filmmaker in focus at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.