Overview
- Public broadcaster NHK confirmed the death of the acclaimed actor at age 92, with Kyodo reporting pneumonia as the cause.
- A source close to his agency told TBS News Dig he died in Tokyo at 00:25 on Saturday, November 8, and that no public memorial is planned.
- Over a seven-decade career he appeared in more than 100 films and roughly 200 total productions across film, television, and stage.
- He was renowned for Masaki Kobayashi’s The Human Condition trilogy and Harakiri and for Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha and Ran.
- Honors included Japan’s Person of Cultural Merit in 2007 and the Order of Culture in 2015, and he co-founded the Mumeijuku acting school with his wife, Yasuko Miyazaki.