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Kumamoto City-born Shimada Yoko is best known in the west as Mariko from the 1980 mini-series Shogun. The lady-in-waiting role created an interest in Japan and its culture overseas and introduced Japanese history to foreign audiences. She won the Golden Globe For Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series - Drama category and was nominated for a Prime-time Emmy Award for her work on the serial in 1981. Shimada, who spoke some English for the serial, had been acting for years prior to Shogun however. She began learning ballet since age three and wanted to become a ballerina until her high high school days. Her family had moved to Tokyo when she was eight. She obtained an agent and began acting while in junior high school. The TV serial Zoku Hyouten made her famous beginning 1970. She released a nude photo book, called Kir Royal, in 1992. She was 39 and the photo book became a bestseller shifting half a million copies. At 57 she starred in an 'AV' pornography video called Mikkai in 2011. This was a tribute to her body even at that age. Shimada has a reservation for a space burial.

She began acting after high school as part of a theatre troupe. Her stage name was Yuuki Chiho. Years later she would relay that she only started acting for the money. Her father had wanted her to become a pharmacologist, but she missed her examination due to a fractured foot. She changed her alias to Kirin Kiki after being asked to auction something on a television show claiming she possessed nothing else she could offer. Her marriage to fellow trouper Kishida Shin came to an end after four years in 1968. She married pop musician Uchida Yuya in 1973. The couple quickly raised eyebrows by opting to live under separate roofs. They had a daughter. They are separated today. Her daughter, Uchida Yayako, portrayed the younger character of Kiki's in Tokyo Tower: Mom And Me, And Sometimes Dad. Uchida Yayako is married to the actor Motoki Masahiro of Departures fame. Kirin's granddaughter acted alongside her in Red Bean. Uchida Yayako lives in Great Britain. Kirin appeared in many television serials, feature films and inevitably commercials like the Tora-San series, the offbeat Pistol Opera, Tokyo Tower: Mom And Me, And Sometimes Dad and the dismal Red Beans by which time she was very well-known. She has focused on the big screen, instead of television, in recent years. Heartache struck successively in 2003 and 2004 when she had to contend with a detached retina in her left eye, which made her believe she would go blind, and breast cancer which later - as of 2017 - would be announced incurable and terminal. She wanted people to know she undergone a mastec-tomy following her breast cancer diagnosis. Kirin won the Best Supporting Actress award at the Yokohama Film Festival for her work in the comedy Kamikaze Girls and Half A Confession in 2004 and the Japan Academy Prize for Mom And Me, And Sometimes Dad for Best Actress in 2008. She reports that she is a preferred recluse who does not like children and preferably does not interact with her own child or grandchild. She has managed herself through a fax machine since the death of her manager circa 2008.

Susumu Fujita was born on 8 January 1912 in Fukuoka, Japan. He was an actor, known for The Hidden Fortress (1958), Sanshiro Sugata (1943) and Yojimbo (1961). He died on 23 March 1991 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Iijima Ai was born in Koto Ward, Tokyo. Her birth name was Matsue Ookubo, but she would later also use Ai Candy and Mitsuko Ishii as stage names. She had a troubled childhood, according to her autobiography, where she hated her parents so much that she ran away from her home and lives on the streets. She lost her grandfather at a young age and despite doing well at elementary school could not pass to enter high school from junior high. She made a living as a hostess at night clubs, engaging in compensated dating and working at a karaoke bar. She began her adult video acting in 2002 and in one year became Japan's top porn star. She concurrently made the transition to TV by appearing on TV Tokyo's Gilgamesh Night, which was an erotic early morning show. She released a music single called Naisho De Ai Ai bizarrely involving uncoordinated children dancing, an up-skirt shot, soldiers in uniform and her with a tank and obtained a regular spot on a TV talk show. She also appeared in the mainstream movie Purupuru Tenshi Teki Kyujitsu as an angel in 1993. Her 2000 novel Platonic Sex was a bestseller in Japan selling over a million copies. She would incorporate many autobiographical details in it. Fuji TV made a four-hour mini-serial and Toho a movie based on the book. Both were toned down. She was a regular on TV on a show called KinSuma (SNAP band's Friday program). By now she had become an AIDS activist, something which is rare in Japan, and had worked with the United Nations and the Japanese government among others. By 2006 she was in ill health and had taken time off from appearing in variety shows. There was a report that her talent agency, or employee thereof, had ripped off the equivalent of a million dollars from her and she was in emotional and physical pain. These lead to her retirement from television with the announcement coming on TBS' Sunday Japan. She was 34. She had suffered from kidney and urinary tract infection. She was found dead in hey Shibuya, Tokyo apartment in on December 24th, 2008. The autopsy report assessed that she had been dead for a week. She was 36 when police reported cause of death as pneumonia. Others suspected and reported suicide or aids-related illness. Her legacy likely remains her openness and honesty regarding herself, her life and others.

A character actress who never quite got her due, despite roles in numerous high-profile movies from the 1940s onward. Although a vigorous participant in Toho's labor disputes of that early period, like so many others she never really left, in part because she had married studio producer Tomoyuki Tanaka. An excellent performer with a lively and genuine presence, Nakakita was never fated for great stardom, although Akira Kurosawa early on spotted her potential as a realistic romantic lead, and cast her as the optimistic girlfriend in One Wonderful Sunday (1947). A superlative later performance appeared in Sekai daisensô (1961), in which she essayed the role of a single mother vainly struggling across Tokyo to be reunited with her young daughter before war breaks out. For the most part however, she appeared to come to regard acting as more of a hobby than a profession, turning up in bit roles for Toho movies of all kinds, usually in the kind of maternal roles for which she was extremely suited, many of them produced by her husband, although it would be mistaken to assume that someone with her obvious talent had to rely on Tanaka just to get a job. By the end of the 1960s she appears to have retired altogether, and concentrated on her family.

Kakeru Takamine was born on 13 June 1986 in Japan. She was an actress, known for Cream Lemon: Ami on the Poolside (2006). She died on 30 December 2006 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Takeharu Yamamoto was a composer, known for Ginza no Jirochô (1963), Jidan'ya (1963) and Seishun o kaese (1963). Takeharu died on 7 September 2011 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Reiko Niwa was born on 17 January 1958 in Suita, Osaka, Japan. She was an actress, known for Truck Rascals (1975), Gunshû no naka no satsujin (1958) and Royal Warriors (1986). She was married to Takashi Sato. She died on 5 July 2018 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Yoshihiro Katô was born on 7 October 1958 in Akita, Japan. He was an actor, known for Tampopo (1985), Lost in the Wilderness (1986) and A-hômansu (1986). He died on 27 April 2007 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Tsutomu Shimomoto was born on 2 October 1917 in Kochi, Japan. He was an actor, known for Children of Hiroshima (1952), Akitsu Springs (1962) and Face in the Dark (1958). He was married to Isuzu Yamada. He died on 29 November 2000 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Taichirô Hirokawa was born on 15 February 1940 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for Space Battleship Yamato (1977), Space Battleship Yamato (1974) and Be Forever Yamato (1980). He died on 3 March 2008 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Tokue Hanazawa was born on 18 October 1911 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for Zesshô (1966), Shiosai (1975) and Red Lion (1969). He died on 7 March 2001 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Michiko Namiki was born on 30 September 1921 in Taiwan. She was an actress, known for Odoru ryûgûjô (1949), Soyokaze (1945) and Kamen no machi (1947). She was married to Hayato Nango. She died on 7 April 2001 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Eiji Kanie was born on 21 November 1941 in Tokyo, Japan. He was an actor, known for Fist of the North Star (1984), Macross: Do You Remember Love? (1984) and Super Dimension Fortress Macross (1982). He died on 13 October 1985 in Ebisu, Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Kazuko Imai was born on 12 December 1932 in Setagaya, Tokyo, Japan. She was an actress, known for Kita no kuni kara (1981), The Castle of Sand (1974) and Daitokai - Tatakai no hibi (1976). She died on 14 October 2012 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Ryuchell was born on 29 September 1995 in Ginowan, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. He was an actor, known for Aishiteru! (2022), Crayon Shin-chan: Honeymoon Hurricane - The Lost Hiroshi (2019) and Doyo wa Karafuru (2022). He was married to Peco (II). He died on 12 July 2023 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Dai Nishijima was a writer, known for Furyô shônen (1956), Kyûketsu-ga (1956) and Jiken kisha (1959). Dai died on 3 March 2010 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.

Maruya Saiichi was born on 27 August 1925 in Tsuruoka, Yamagata, Japan. Maruya was a writer, known for Turning Point (1994). Maruya died on 13 October 2012 in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan.