List of Famous people born in Japan

Ken Watanabe is a Japanese actor. To English-speaking audiences, he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Film Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for Memories of Tomorrow and in 2010 for Shizumanu Taiyō. He is also known for his roles in Christopher Nolan's films Batman Begins and Inception, Memoirs of a Geisha and Pokémon Detective Pikachu.

Megumi Ogata is a Japanese actress, voice actress and singer from the Greater Tokyo Area. As a singer, she goes by the name em:óu. She attended Tokai University, but left due to lack of interest. She is also best known for voicing Sailor Uranus in the Sailor Moon series, Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda in the Danganronpa series, Kurama in Yu Yu Hakusho, Shinji Ikari in Neon Genesis Evangelion, Yugi Mutou and Dark Yugi in Yu-Gi-Oh!, and Yukito Tsukishiro/Yue in Cardcaptor Sakura.

Eriko Imai is a Japanese pop singer and politician. She made her debut in the early 1990s as part of the group Speed, which disbanded in March 2000. Eriko began her work away from Speed during 1998, performing "Tsumetaku Shinai de", under the stage name "Eriko with Crunch", on the Speed single "All My True Love". After the group disbanded, Imai continued her career as a solo artist until Speed's reformation in 2008.

Takeru Imamura is a Japanese professional baseball player. A pitcher, he plays for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of the Central League in Nippon Professional Baseball.

Murakami Mai is a retired Japanese artistic gymnast and Olympic medalist. She is the 2017 World Champion and 2021 World Champion on floor exercise, the 2018 World all-around silver medalist and floor exercise bronze medalist, and a four-time Japanese national all-around champion. She represented Japan at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics, winning a bronze medal on floor exercise in the latter. This made her the first female Japanese gymnast to win an individual medal at the Olympics.

Ruriko Kojima is a Japanese tarento, gravure idol and sportscaster, affiliated with Horipro.

Taishi Nakagawa is a Japanese actor, host, and model. He is best known for his leading role as Yuiji Kira in the live action Closest Love To Heaven, and as Tenma Hase in the second season of Hana Yori Dango

Yuki Yanagita , nicknamed "Giita (ギータ)", is a professional Japanese baseball outfielder for the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks. He is a six-time All-Star and was the Pacific League MVP in 2015. Yanagita has won six Japan Series championships with the Hawks.

Kumiko Kōda , known professionally as Koda Kumi , is a Japanese singer from Kyoto, known for her urban and R&B songs.

Seiji Kihara is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet.