Overview
- His family confirmed the death to Deadline, saying he was surrounded by his children, and his manager Margie Weiner and publicist Penny Vizcarra issued confirmations.
- Several outlets differ on the date of death, with some reporting December 4 and others December 5, 2025.
- Tagawa broke through in Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor in 1987 and became a pop-culture fixture as Shang Tsung in the 1995 Mortal Kombat film.
- His career spanned more than a hundred screen credits, including roles in Licence to Kill, Pearl Harbor, and the series The Man in the High Castle.
- He was born in Tokyo in 1950, raised largely in the United States with a martial-arts background, and is survived by his children Calen, Brynne and Cana and grandchildren River and Thea.