List of Famous people born in Japan

Masaki Saito is a Japanese former Nippon Professional Baseball pitcher. He played for the Yomiuri Giants from 1984 to 2001. He won the Eiji Sawamura Award three times, 1989, 1995, and 1996, and he won the Nippon Professional Baseball Most Valuable Player Award in 1990.

Tetsuya Bessho is a Japanese actor and radio presenter. Since 2014, he hosted the Miss International pageant.

Naoki Kawano is a Japanese actor and musician from Mobara, Chiba Prefecture. He is a former Johnny's Jr. member, and is no longer represented by Johnny & Associates. While a Johnny's Jr., he was part of Kaidan Trio, TOKYO, and Kawano Band. He was also formerly the drummer of the rock band Dustz, fronted by fellow actor Ray Fujita. His debut role as an actor was as the antagonist Long in the Super Sentai series Juken Sentai Gekiranger.

Mayumi Yamaguchi is a Japanese voice actress who is affiliated with Accent.

Mamoru Fujisawa , known professionally as Joe Hisaishi , is a Japanese composer and musical director known for over 100 film scores and solo albums dating back to 1981. Hisaishi is also known for his piano scores.

Akari Yoshida is a former member of the Japanese idol girl group NMB48. She is a former member of NMB48's Team N.

Masao Urino is a Japanese lyricist, script writer, and film director. He has written lyrics for many musical groups and individual artists, sometimes under the pseudonym Reiji Asō .

Toru Araiba is a former Japanese football player.

Kenichi Tago is a badminton player from Japan, the son of badminton player Yoshiko Yonekura. In 2010, he reached the final of the All England Open Badminton Championships. En route to the final he beat three seeded players including Nguyen Tien Minh, Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai. In the final, Tago lost to the first seed and reigning World No. 1 Lee Chong Wei from Malaysia with a score of 21–19 and 21–19, following an incorrect line call in Lee Chong Wei's favour at matchpoint. In 2012, he competed at the London 2012 Summer Olympics in the men's singles event, but did not advance to the knock-out stage after being defeated by Niluka Karunaratne of Sri Lanka with a score of 18–21, 16–21. In 2014, he reached the Indonesia Open final after a shocking win over Lee Chong Wei in the semifinal but could not keep up his good form and went on to lose by straight games in the final to Jan O. Jorgensen of Denmark. He competed at the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games.

Yuko Shimizu is a Japanese actress and former gravure idol. She is represented with YMN. Her husband is professional baseball player Kyohei Nakamura of the Hiroshima Toyo Carps.