List of Famous people born in Japan

Kōichirō Genba is a Japanese politician and the Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2011 to 2012. He is a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet, and was a member to the Democratic Party of Japan and its successor Democratic Party until its merger in 2018. He left the party briefly before the merger, and joined the Group of Independents House of Representatives caucus of other former Democrats a few days later. A native of Tamura, Fukushima and graduate of Sophia University, he was later accepted into the prestigious Matsushita Institute of Government and Management, an institution founded by Panasonic founder Konosuke Matsushita which grooms future civic leaders of Japan. Genba was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1993 after serving in the assembly of Fukushima Prefecture for one term. In September 2011 he was chosen as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the cabinet of Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Mayu Tsuruta is an actress. In 1996 she was nominated by the Award of the Japanese Academy for Best Supporting Actress in the film Kike wadatsumi no koe Last Friends. Following the chaos of Kenya's 2007 presidential election, on March 30, 2008, she visited thousands of internal refugees at Kenya's Nakuru ASK grounds, as a goodwill ambassador for Tokyo International Conference on African Development. While surveying the situation at the refugee camp, she spent time with several families and helped distribute food aid.

Wakana Matsumoto is a Japanese actress from Tottori Prefecture. She portrayed Airi Nogami in the tokusatsu drama Kamen Rider Den-O.

Kunie Tanaka is a Japanese actor. He had his first notable role in 1960 as a thug in Akira Kurosawa's The Bad Sleep Well, and worked with the director again on Sanjuro. Tanaka is well known for his roles in Kinji Fukasaku's yakuza films, namely the Battles Without Honor and Humanity series. He also appeared in Masaki Kobayashi's Kwaidan.

Yui Ohashi is a Japanese swimmer, specializing in the medley events. She became the first Japanese woman to dip beneath the 2:08-barrier in the women's 200 metre individual medley event at the 2017 World Aquatics Championships, finishing with a silver-medal time and a national record of 2:07.91. She qualified to represent Japan at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Akira Ikegami is a Japanese journalist and author.

Kazuhisa Makita is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). He previously played for the Saitama Seibu Lions of NPB and for the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball (MLB).

Ken Mitsuishi is a Japanese actor. He has appeared in films such as Chaos and Tokyo Playboy Club.

Masachika Ichimura is a Japanese actor and voice actor. He was born in Kawagoe, Saitama and studies at Theater Art College in Tokyo after graduating high school. He is best known to anime fans as the voice of Mewtwo. He is married to singer Ryoko Shinohara.

Itsuki Sagara is a Japanese actress who has appeared in a number of feature films, television series and stage plays.