Koji Yakusho

Acting

Koji Yakusho

Born 1956-01-01 · Isahaya, Japan

Kōji Hashimoto (橋本 広司, Hashimoto Kōji, born 1 January 1956), known professionally as Kōji Yakusho (役所 広司, Yakusho Kōji), is a Japanese actor. He is known internationally for his starring roles in Shall We Dance? (1996), 13 Assassins (2010), The Third Murder (2017), The Blood of Wolves (2018), Under the Open Sky (2020) and The Days (2023). For his performance in Perfect Days (2023), he was awarded the Best Actor award in the 76th Cannes Film Festival.

Acting credits

Perfect Days poster
7.8

Hirayama is content with his life as a toilet cleaner in Tokyo. Outside of his structured routine, he cherishes music on cassette tapes, books, and taking photos of trees. Through unexpected encounters, he reflects on finding beauty in the world.

Perfect Days

2023

13 Assassins poster
7.3

A bravado period action film set at the end of Japan's feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a war-torn future.

13 Assassins

2010

Cure poster
7.6

A frustrated detective deals with the case of several gruesome murders committed by people who have no recollection of what they've done.

Cure

1997

Babel poster
7.2

Tragedy strikes a married couple vacationing in the Moroccan desert, which jumpstarts an interlocking story involving four different families.

Babel

2006

Scarlet poster
7.0

After failing to avenge her father's murder, Princess Scarlet, wakes up in the "Land of the Dead." In this world filled with madness, if she does not achieve her revenge against her nemesis and reach the "No End Place," she will become "Void" and cease to exist. Can Scarlet find a way to live at the end of her endless journey?

Scarlet

2025

Belle poster
7.6

Suzu is a 17-year-old high-school student living in a rural town with her father. Wounded by the loss of her mother at a young age, Suzu one day discovers the massive online world "U" and dives into this alternate reality as her avatar, Belle. Before long, all of U's eyes are fixed on Belle, when, suddenly, a mysterious, dragon-like figure appears before her.

Belle

2021

Pulse poster
6.7

In the immense city of Tokyo, the darkness of the afterlife lures some of its inhabitants desperately trying to escape the sadness and isolation of the modern world.

Pulse

2001

Memoirs of a Geisha poster
7.6

In the years before World War II, a penniless Japanese child is torn from her family to work as a maid in a geisha house.

Memoirs of a Geisha

2005

The Boy and the Beast poster
7.9

Kyuta, a boy living in Shibuya, and Kumatetsu, a lonesome beast from Jutengai, an imaginary world. One day, Kyuta forays into the imaginary world and, as he's looking for his way back, meets Kumatetsu who becomes his spirit guide. That encounter leads them to many adventures.

The Boy and the Beast

2015

The Supporting Actors in Byplaywood poster
6.7

In a studio at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Gaku Hamada is struggling to shoot a movie with a dog in the lead role. Enter a huge cast of veteran actors who get involved in misadventures while on set.

The Supporting Actors in Byplaywood

2021

Mirai poster
7.2

Four-year-old Kun struggles with jealousy after his newborn sister, Mirai, begins receiving most of his family’s attention. Retreating to the garden, he encounters Mirai as a teenager from the future and embarks on extraordinary journeys across his family’s past, gradually discovering new perspectives on love, belonging and what it means to become an older brother.

Mirai

2018

The Eel poster
6.9

A businessman kills his adulterous wife and is sent to prison. After his release, he opens a barbershop and meets new people, talking to almost no one except for an eel he befriended while in prison.

The Eel

1997

The World of Kanako poster
6.4

When Kanako, a model daughter and a brilliant student, disappears, her mother asks her ex-husband, a violent former policeman, to find her. As his investigation progresses, his idealized image of Kanako cracks: the girl hides a dark life that her father can not even imagine.

The World of Kanako

2014

The Third Murder poster
6.6

A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.

The Third Murder

2017

Silk poster
5.8

French silkworm trader Hervé is married to the beautiful Hélène. When an outbreak of disease ravages European silkworms, Hervé must travel to Japan to retrieve healthy eggs. After a long journey, Hervé finally arrives at a village where he can buy them. He becomes infatuated with a young concubine and goes to great lengths to see her again. But, when war breaks out in Japan, the concubine flees, forcing Hervé to return home to his wife.

Silk

2007

The Brightest Sun poster
NR

When a private detective is murdered, a former colleague and a trainee detective are sent to investigate. Along the way, they uncover a tragic truth that triggers memories from their own haunted pasts.

The Brightest Sun

2026

Tampopo poster
7.8

In this humorous paean to the joys of food, a pair of truck drivers happen onto a decrepit roadside shop selling ramen noodles. The widowed owner, Tampopo, begs them to help her turn her establishment into a paragon of the "art of noodle-soup making". Interspersed are satirical vignettes about the importance of food to different aspects of human life.

Tampopo

1985

The Blood of Wolves poster
7.2

Set in 1988 in Hiroshima, Japan, prior to the enactment of the anti-organized crime law. A rumor exists that Detective Shogo Ogami has ties with the yakuza. He is partnered with Detective Shuichi Hioka and they investigate a missing person case involving a financial company employee. Conflicts between opposing yakuza groups become more serious.

The Blood of Wolves

2018

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window poster
7.4

This engaging series of childhood recollections tells of an unconventional school in Tokyo during World War II that combined learning with fun, freedom, and love. The school had old railroad cars for classrooms and was run by an extraordinary man – its founder and headmaster, Sōsaku Kobayashi – who deeply valued children's independence, and who was a firm believer in freedom of expression and activity.

Totto-chan: The Little Girl at the Window

2023

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge poster
6.6

A down-and-out businessman travels to a seaside town, where he meets a woman with unusual sexual powers.

Warm Water Under a Red Bridge

2001

Shall We Dance? poster
7.5

A bored accountant spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.

Shall We Dance?

1996

The Summit: A Chronicle Of Stones to Serenity poster
6.4

In 1907, a group of men climb an unconquered peak in the last unmapped region of Japan.

The Summit: A Chronicle Of Stones to Serenity

2009

Lost Paradise poster
6.0

Kuki is a veteran newspaper reporter who has been shuffled off to a book-development branch and finds escape in an illicit relationship with Rinko. Together they find the passion no longer present in their marriages.

Lost Paradise

1997

Suite Dreams poster
6.2

New Year's Eve at a posh hotel and all should be shipshape. It is not. There is the traditional party, an official ceremony, entertainment and a special dinner planned and yet there is trouble everywhere. An Animal is on the loose, a politician to protect, a prostitute to handle, a bellhop to focus and a few things more.

Suite Dreams

2006

Behind the camera