List of Famous people born in Kōchi, Kōchi Prefecture

Sumi Shimamoto , real name Sumi Koshikawa , is a Japanese actress, voice actress and narrator of film and anime and video games. After graduating from the Toho Gakuen College of Drama and Music, she joined Gekidan Seinenza, a theatrical acting troupe. She is currently independent of any talent management company.

Count Itagaki Taisuke was a Japanese soldier, politician and leader of the Freedom and People's Rights Movement , which evolved into Japan's first political party. His image is on Japan's 1953 100-yen banknote.

Tsutomu Seki is a Japanese astronomer and discoverer of minor planets and comets, born in Kōchi, Japan.

Tetsuya Nomura is a Japanese video game artist, designer and director working for Square Enix. He designed characters for the Final Fantasy series, debuting with Final Fantasy VI and continuing with various later installments. Additionally, Nomura has led the development of the Kingdom Hearts series since its debut in 2002 and was the director for the CGI film Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children.

Nobuo Uematsu is a Japanese musician and composer, best known for his contributions to the Final Fantasy video game series by Square Enix. A self-taught musician, he began playing the piano at the age of twelve, with English singer-songwriter Elton John as one of his biggest influences. Uematsu joined Square in 1986, where he first met Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi. The two later worked together on many titles at the company, most notably in the Final Fantasy series. After nearly two decades with Square, Uematsu left in 2004 to create his own production company, which included the Dog Ear Records music label. He has since composed music as a freelancer for other games, including ones developed by Square Enix and Sakaguchi's development studio, Mistwalker.

Tomoyuki Yamashita was a Japanese general of the Imperial Japanese Army during World War II. Yamashita led Japanese forces during the invasion of Malaya and Battle of Singapore, with his accomplishment of conquering Malaya and Singapore in 70 days earning him the sobriquet "The Tiger of Malaya" and led to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill calling the ignominious fall of Singapore to Japan the "worst disaster" and "largest capitulation" in British military history. Yamashita was assigned to defend the Philippines from the advancing Allied forces later in the war, and while unable to prevent the Allied advance, he was able to hold on to part of Luzon until after the formal Surrender of Japan in August 1945.

Ryōko Hirosue is a Japanese actress and singer, best known to international audiences for her roles in the Luc Besson-produced Wasabi and the Academy Award-winning Japanese film Departures. She also starred in the 2008 comedy series Yasuko to Kenji.