List of Famous people born in Nara Prefecture, Japan

Satoru Kitaoka , is a Japanese shoot wrestler and mixed martial artist who most recently competed for RIZIN. A professional competitor since 2000, he has also competed for DREAM, Pancrase, DEEP, and World Victory Road. Kitaoka is renowned for his catch wrestling abilities which he learned studying under two of Japan's most respected catch wrestlers Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. He is also a Brazilian jiu jitsu blackbelt under Yuki Nakai. A master of the guillotine choke and leg lock submissions, Kitaoka holds notable wins over Takanori Gomi, Paul Daley, and Carlos Condit.

Ryotaro Tanose is a Japanese politician of the Liberal Democratic Party, a member of the House of Representatives in the Diet. A native of Gojō, Nara and graduate of Nagoya Institute of Technology, he had served in the city assembly of Gojo for two terms since 1973 and the assembly of Nara Prefecture for two terms since 1983. After an unsuccessful run in 1990, he was elected to the House of Representatives for the first time in 1993.

Shinichi Kitaoka is a Japanese political scientist and the president of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and a former president of the International University of Japan, a professor at Japan's GRIPS-Tokyo School of Security and International Studies and the former Japanese ambassador to the United Nations. His major is the history of Japanese politics and diplomacy, as a political scientist and a historian.

Masato Nakamura is a Japanese professional baseball outfielder for the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles in Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball.

Fuka Kakimoto is a Japanese retired professional wrestler, mixed martial artist and model better known simply as Fuka . She was trained by JDStar as part of the promotion's "Athtress" program and made her debut in February 2004, quickly garnering a large fan following. From 2005 to 2006, Fuka also fought three mixed martial arts fights, finishing with a record of two wins and one loss. During her years in JDStar, Fuka became the inaugural Princess of Pro-Wrestling (POP) Champion and also held the Princess of Ketsudeka (POK) and TWF World Tag Team Championships. After the promotion folded in July 2007, Fuka became a freelancer, while also starting to promote her own series of independent wrestling events under the banner of Fuka Matsuri. As a freelancer, Fuka also made several trips to Mexico, working for local independent promotions. Fuka ended her in-ring career in March 2010 at the age of 25, after which she began training wrestlers for the newly founded World Wonder Ring Stardom promotion. When Stardom was officially announced the following September, Fuka was appointed the General Manager of the promotion, a role she has held since. As a model, Fuka is signed to the Platinum Production agency. Her older brother, Daichi, is also a professional wrestler, most notably working for Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) between 2003 and 2014, and her father Masahide and oldest brother Genki have also made appearances in wrestling matches involving her.

Juichi Wakisaka is a former Japanese racing driver who was a 2002, 2006 and 2009 champion in Japan's Super GT series in the GT500 category. In 2002, Wakisaka raced the Toyota Supra GT with Akira Iida, in 2006 and 2009 Wakisaka raced the Lexus SC 430 with André Lotterer. He retired from driving after the conclusion of the 2015 Super GT Series season, becoming the team director of Lexus Team LeMans Wako's.

Nobuhiro Takashiro is a former Nippon Professional Baseball infielder.

Harumichi Tatekawa is a Japanese rugby union player who can play either as a fly-half or centre. He plays for the Kubota Spears in his native country and the Brumbies in the international Super Rugby competition.

Hiroya Shimamoto is a Japanese professional baseball pitcher for the Hanshin Tigers of Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB).

Kazumi Inamura is a Japanese politician. She has been mayor of Amagasaki since 13 December 2010. She is member of the Greens Japan political party and was its co-president from 2008 to 2010. She was a student at the University of Kobe during the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake. She was a member of the Hyogo Prefectural Assembly.