A

• Akihito
  Akihito
  is the current , the 125th emperor of his line according to Japan's traditional order of succession. He acceded to the throne in 1989.-Name:In Japan, the emperor is never referred to by his given name, but rather is referred to as "His Imperial Majesty the Emperor" which may be shortened to . In...
  
   (1959) Emperor of Japan
• Akutagawa Ryunosuke
  Ryunosuke Akutagawa
  was a Japanese writer active in the Taishō period in Japan. He is regarded as the "Father of the Japanese short story". He committed suicide at age of 35 through an overdose of barbital.-Early life:...
  
   (1999) Writer
• Ando Hiroshige
  Hiroshige
  was a Japanese ukiyo-e artist, and one of the last great artists in that tradition. He was also referred to as Andō Hiroshige and by the art name of Ichiyūsai Hiroshige ....
  
   (1997) Painter
• Arashi Kanjūrō
  Kanjūrō Arashi
  was a Japanese film actor. He entered the film industry in 1927 and came to fame playing Kurama Tengu, a character in the Bakumatsu era created by Jirō Osaragi in his novels. In the 1950s he portrayed the Emperor Meiji in several hit films and appeared in yakuza films in the 1960s...
  
   (2000) Actor
• Arisukawanomiya Taruhito
  Prince Arisugawa Taruhito
  became the 9th head of line of shinnōke cadet branches of the Imperial Family of Japan on September 9, 1871. He was a career officer in the Imperial Japanese Army.-Early life:...
  
   (1896) Royal Family
• Atsumi Kiyoshi (2000, 2006) Actor

B

• Bandō Tsumasaburō
  Tsumasaburo Bando
  was one of the most prominent Japanese actors of the twentieth century. Famous for his rebellious, sword fighting roles in many jidaigeki silent films, he rose to fame after joining the Tōjiin Studio of Makino Film Productions in Kyoto in 1923.-Early life:...
  
   (1999) Actor
• Beethoven, Ludwig van
  Ludwig van Beethoven
  Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
  
   (2005) German composer
• Buchanan, James
  James Buchanan
  James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States . He is the only president from Pennsylvania, the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor and the last to be born in the 18th century....
  
   (1960) American President

C

• Clark, William S.
  William S. Clark
  William Smith Clark was a professor of chemistry, botany and zoology, a colonel during the American Civil War, and a leader in agricultural education. Raised and schooled in Easthampton, Massachusetts, Clark spent most of his adult life in Amherst, Massachusetts...
  
   (2001 L) Professor
• Chiossone, Edoardo
  Edoardo Chiossone
  Edoardo Chiossone was an Italian engraver and painter, noted for his work as a foreign advisor to Meiji period Japan, and for his collection of Japanese art.-Biography:...
  
   (1994) Engraving specialist

F

• Fujiwara Yoshie (1998) Opera Singer
• Fujiwara no Kamatari
  Fujiwara no Kamatari
  Fujiwara no Kamatari was a Japanese statesman, courtier and politician during the Asuka period.Kamatari was the founder of the Fujiwara clan in Japan. His birth clan was the Nakatomi. He was the son of Nakatomi no Mikeko, and his birth name was Nakatomi no Kamatari...
  
   (1939, 1945) Founder of the Fujiwara clan
• Fujiwara no Teika
  Fujiwara no Teika
  Fujiwara no Teika , also known as Fujiwara no Sadaie or Sada-ie, was a Japanese poet, critic, calligrapher, novelist, anthologist, scribe, and scholar of the late Heian and early Kamakura periods...
  
   (2005) Waka poet
• Fukada Hisaya (2003 L)
• Fukuzawa Yukichi
  Fukuzawa Yukichi
  was a Japanese author, writer, teacher, translator, entrepreneur and political theorist who founded Keio University. His ideas about government and social institutions made a lasting impression on a rapidly changing Japan during the Meiji Era...
  
   (1950, 1958) Teacher, translator, entrepreneur and political theorist
• Furuhashi Hironoshin (2000) Swimmer
• Futabayama Sadaji
  Futabayama Sadaji
  Futabayama Sadaji , born as Akiyoshi Sadaji in Oita Prefecture, Japan, was the 35th Yokozuna in sumo wrestling, from 1937 until 1945. He won twelve top division championships and had a winning streak of 69 consecutive bouts, an all-time record. Despite his dominance he was extremely popular with...
  
   (2000) Sumo Wrestler

H

• Hamada Mitsuo (2006) Actor
• Hanawa Hokinoichi (1996) Japanologist
• Hanaoka Seishū (2000, 2004) Physician
• Hara Setsuko
  Setsuko Hara
  is a Japanese actress who appeared in six of Yasujirō Ozu's films, most notably as Noriko in the 'Noriko Trilogy': Late Spring , Early Summer and Tokyo Story . Her other films for Ozu were Tokyo Twilight , Late Autumn and finally The End of Summer in 1961.She was born 会田 昌江 Masae Aida in...
  
   (2006) Actress
• Hayami Gyoshu
  Hayami Gyoshu
  was the pseudonym of a Japanese painter in the Nihonga style, active during the Taishō and Shōwa eras. His real name was Eiichi Maita.Gyoshū was born in the plebian downtown district of Asakusa in Tokyo. He studied traditional painting techniques as an apprentice to Matsumoto Fuko from the age of 15...
  
   (1994) Painter
• Hayashi Fumiko
  Fumiko Hayashi (author)
  was a Japanese novelist and poet.When Hayashi was seven, her mother ran away with a manager of her common-law husband's store, and afterwards the three worked in Kyūshū as itinerant merchants...
  
   (2000) Novelist
• Higuchi Ichiyō (1951, 1981) Author
• Hiraga Gennai
  Hiraga Gennai
  was an Edo period Japanese pharmacologist, student of Rangaku, physician, author, painter and inventor who is well known for his Erekiteru , Kandankei and Kakanpu...
  
   (2004) Inventor
• Hirata Mitsuru (2006) Actor
• Hishida Shunsō
  Hishida Shunso
  was the pseudonym of a Japanese painter from the Meiji period. One of Okakura Tenshin's pupils along with Yokoyama Taikan and Shimomura Kanzan, he played a role in the Meiji era innovation of Nihonga. His real name was Hishida Miyoji. He was also known for his numerous paintings of cats.- Early...
  
   (1951) Painter
• Hitomi Kinue (2000) Athlete
• Hornfischer, Kurt (1952) German heavyweight wrestler
• Hozumi Nobushige
  Hozumi Nobushige
  Baron was a Japanese statesman and legal expert in Meiji period.Hozumi was born in Uwajima Domain, Iyo Province as the second son to a family of kokugaku scholars. He graduated from the Kaisei Gakko, , and studied overseas from 1876-1881...
  
   (1999) Statesman, legal expert

I

• Ichikawa Danjūrō IX
  Ichikawa Danjuro IX
  Ichikawa Danjūrō IX was one of the most successful and famous Kabuki actors of the Meiji period ....
  
   (1950) Kabuki actor
• Ichikawa Danjūrō XI (1991) Kabuki actor
• Ichikawa Ebizo
  Ichikawa Danjuro V
  Ichikawa Danjūrō V , also known as Ichikawa Ebizō, was one of the most famous and popular Kabuki actors of all time. Throughout his career, Danjūrō would hold some of the highest ranks in the hyōbanki, an annual Edo publications which evaluated actors and performances...
  
   (1956, 2000) Kabuki actor
• Ichikawa Komazo III (1988) Kabuki actor
• Ichikawa Raizo (2006) Actor
• Ino Tadataka
  Ino Tadataka
  Inō Tadataka was a Japanese surveyor and cartographer. He is known for completing the first map of Japan created using modern surveying techniques.-Early life:...
  
   (1995) Surveyor, cartographer
• Iseno Taifu (2006)
• Ishihara Yujiro
  Yujiro Ishihara
  was a Japanese actor and singer born in Kobe. His elder brother, Shintaro Ishihara, is an author, politician, and the current Governor of Tokyo. Yujiro debuted in 1956 in "Season of the Sun," based on a novel written by his brother...
  
   (1997) Actor, singer
• Ishikawa Goemon
  Ishikawa Goemon
  was a semi-legendary Japanese outlaw hero who stole gold and valuables and gave them to the poor. Goemon is notable for being boiled alive along with his son in public after a failed assassination attempt on the civil war-era warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. A large iron kettle-shaped bathtub is now...
  
   (1992) Ninja warrior
• Iwai Hanshiro (1984)
• Iwai Kumejiro (1988)
• Iwamigata (1979)
• Iwasaki Yataro (1986) Founder of Mitsubishi Company Group
• Izumo no Okuni
  Izumo no Okuni
  was the originator of kabuki theater. She was believed to be a miko at the Grand Shrine of Izumo who began performing this new style of dancing, singing, and acting in the dry riverbeds of Kyoto.-Early years:...
  
   (1989, 2003) Founder of Kabuki

J

• Jingū (1908) Empress
• Jinmaku
  Jinmaku Kyugoro
  Jinmaku Kyūgorō was a sumo wrestler from what is now Shimane, Japan. He was the sport's 12th Yokozuna.-Career:...
  
   (1978)
• Jitukawa Nobuwaka II (1992)

K

• Kamiya Jihee (1991)
• Kanaguri Shizo
  Shizo Kanakuri
  was a Japanese marathon runner and one of the early leaders of track and field athletics in Japan. He has been celebrated as "Father of marathon" in Japan....
  
   (1999) Marathon runner
• Kaneko Misuzu (2003 L) Poet
• Kanō Hōgai
  Kano Hogai
  was a 19th century Japanese painter of the Kanō school. One of the last of the Kanō painters, Hōgai's works reflect the deep traditions of the school, but also at times show hints of experimentation with Western methods and styles...
  
   (1951) Painter
• Kataoka Nizaemon XIII (1992)
• Katsushika Hokusai
  Hokusai
  was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting...
  
   (1999) Painter
• Katsura Beicho III (1999) Rakugo Teller
• Katsura Bunraku VIII (1999) Rakugo Teller
• Kawabata Yasunari
  Yasunari Kawabata
  was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award...
  
   (1999, 2000) Writer
• Kawakami Otojiro
  Otojiro Kawakami
  was a Japanese actor and comedian from present-day Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, who led the Kawakami Theatre Troupe on successful overseas tours in 1899-1901...
  
   (1999) Actor
• Kawakami Sadayakko (1999) Actress, Business woman
• Kazama Morio (2006) Actor
• Keller, Helen
  Helen Keller
  Helen Adams Keller was an American author, political activist, and lecturer. She was the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree....
  
   (2000) Deafblind American author
• Kimura Sakae (1952) Astronomer
• Ki no Tsurayuki
  Ki no Tsurayuki
  was a Japanese author, poet and courtier of the Heian period.Tsurayuki was a son of Ki no Mochiyuki. He became a waka poet in the 890s. In 905, under the order of Emperor Daigo, he was one of four poets selected to compile the Kokin Wakashū, an anthology of poetry.After holding a few offices in...
  
   (1993) Author
• Kishi Keiko (2000, 2006) Actress
• Kitano Takeshi
  Takeshi Kitano
  is a Japanese filmmaker, comedian, singer, actor, film editor, presenter, screenwriter, author, poet, painter, and one-time video game designer who has received critical acclaim, both in his native Japan and abroad, for his highly idiosyncratic cinematic work. The famed Japanese film critic...
  
   (2006) Film director, comedian
• Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa
  Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa
  of Japan, was the 2nd head of a collateral branch of the Japanese imperial family.- Early life :Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa was the ninth son of Prince Fushimi Kuniye . He entered the Buddhist priesthood under the title Rinnoji-no-miya...
  
   (1896) Prince
• Kitasato Shibasaburō
  Kitasato Shibasaburō
  Baron was a Japanese physician and bacteriologist. He is remembered as the co-discoverer of the infectious agent of bubonic plague in Hong Kong in 1894, almost simultaneously with Alexandre Yersin.-Biography:...
  
   (2003) Physician and bacteriologist
• Kobayashi Akira
  Akira Kobayashi
  is a Japanese actor. His nickname is .- Biography :He successfully became an actor in the Nikkatsu Corporation. He attended Meiji University but left before graduating. Kobayashi made his debut in 1959 in the film Nangoku Tosa o Ato ni Shite . He also starred in the TV series "Wataridori" and...
  
   (2006) Actor, singer
• Kobayashi Takiji (2000) Author
• Kōda Rohan
  Koda Rohan
  who used the pen name was a Japanese author in the Meiji period. His daughter, Aya Kōda, was also a noted author who often wrote about him.Kōda wrote "The Icon of Liberty", also known as "The Buddha of Art" or "The Elegant Buddha", in 1889. A house in which Kōda lived was rebuilt in 1972 by the...
  
   (1997) Author
• Koga Masao (2004) Composer
• Kokontei Shincho V (1999) Rakugo Teller
• Komura Jutaro
  Komura Jutaro
  was a statesman and diplomat in Meiji period Japan.-Biography:Komura was born to a lower-ranking samurai family in service of the Obi clan at Nichinan, Hyuga province . He attended the Daigaku Nankō...
  
   (1999 L) Statesman, diplomat
• Kondo Makoto (1986) Educator
• Koizumi Yakumo (2004) Author
• Kumagai Naozane
  Kumagai Naozane
  was a famous soldier who served the Genji Clan during the Heian period of Japanese history. Kumagai is particularly known for his exploits during the Genpei War, specifically for killing the young warrior Taira no Atsumori at the battle of Ichi-no-tani in 1184...
  
   (1992) Bushi
• Kume Danjo (1991)
• Kunisada Chuji
  Kunisada Chuji
  was a Japanese person in the Edo period.Kunisada Chūji is depicted on 1999 Japanese stamp.- See also :* Kunisada Chūji * Kunisada Chūji * Kunisada Chūji - References :...
  
   (1999)
• Kuroki Hitomi
  Hitomi Kuroki
  Hitomi Kuroki is a Japanese actress. Her real name is Shoko Ichiji née Egami ....
  
   (2006) Actress
• Kurosawa Akira
  Akira Kurosawa
  was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...
  
   (2000) Film Director
• Kyō Machiko
  Machiko Kyo
  is a Japanese actress whose film work occurred primarily during the 1950s. She rose to extraordinary domestic praise in Japan for her work in two of the greatest Japanese films of the 20th century, Akira Kurosawa's Rashōmon and Kenji Mizoguchi's Ugetsu.Machiko trained to be a dancer before...
  
   (2006) Actress

M

• Maejima Hisoka
  Maejima Hisoka
  Baron was a Japanese statesman, politician, and businessman in Meiji period Japan, who founded the Japanese postal service.- Early life :Maejima was born as Ueno Fusagorō, in the village of Shimoikebe, Echigo Province . In 1866 he was adopted into the Maejima family. He was sent to Edo to study...
  
   (1927, 1946, 1947, 1951, 1952, 1961, 1968, 1985, 1994) Statesman, politician, businessman
• Masako, Crown Princess of Japan
  Masako, Crown Princess of Japan
  is the wife of Crown Prince Naruhito, the first son of the Emperor Akihito and the Empress Michiko, and a member of the Imperial House of Japan through marriage.-Early life and education:...
  
   (1993, 2000) Princess
• Masaoka Shiki
  Masaoka Shiki
  , pen-name of Masaoka Noboru , was a Japanese poet, author, and literary critic in Meiji period Japan. Shiki is regarded as a major figure in the development of modern haiku poetry...
  
   (1951, 2001 L, 2002) Author, poet
• Matsuda Yusaku
  Yusaku Matsuda
  was a Japanese actor. Yusaku was born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi to a Zainichi Korean mother. His father is not known. His date was wrongly recorded as 1950 on his birth records due to a parental error in filing a report.-Career:...
  
   (2006) Actor
• Matsui Sumako (1999) Actress
• Matsumoto Koshiro VII
  Matsumoto Koshiro VII
  Matsumoto Kōshirō VII was one of the leading tachiyaku Kabuki actors of Japan's Meiji period through the late 1940s.-Names:...
  
   (1991) Kabuki actor
• Matsuo Basho
  Matsuo Basho
  , born , then , was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku...
  
   (1987, 1989, 2002 L) Poet
• Matsuzaka Keiko
  Keiko Matsuzaka
  is an actress.Born in Ōta, Tokyo, her father was a naturalized South Korean while her mother was Japanese. Active as a child actress in the 1960s, she came into her own as an adult with Daiei, then in 1972 with Shochiku....
  
   (2006) Actress
• Empress Michiko of Japan
  Empress Michiko of Japan
  Empress Michiko of Japan is the wife and consort of Emperor Akihito, the current monarch of Japan. She was the first commoner to marry into the Japanese Imperial Family. As crown princess and later as empress consort, she has become the most visible and widely-travelled imperial consort in...
  
   (1959) Empress
• Mifune Toshirō
  Toshiro Mifune
  Toshirō Mifune was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 170 feature films. He is best known for his 16-film collaboration with filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, from 1948 to 1965, in works such as Rashomon, Seven Samurai, Throne of Blood, and Yojimbo...
  
   (2000, 2006) Actor
• Minamoto no Yoritomo
  Minamoto no Yoritomo
  was the founder and the first shogun of the Kamakura Shogunate of Japan. He ruled from 1192 until 1199.-Early life and exile :Yoritomo was the third son of Minamoto no Yoshitomo, heir of the Minamoto clan, and his official wife, a daughter of Fujiwara no Suenori, who was a member of the...
  
   (1968, 1982) First Shogun of Kamakura Shogunate
• Mishima Yahiko (1999) Athlete
• Misora Hibari
  Hibari Misora
  was an award-winning Japanese enka singer and actress. and was the first woman in Japan to receive the People's Honour Award, which was awarded posthumously for her notable contributions to the music industry. Misora recorded 1,200 songs, and sold 68 million records. After she died, consumer demand...
  
   (1997, 2000) Singer
• Miyagi Michio
  Michio Miyagi
  was a Japanese musician, famous for his koto playing.He was born in Kobe. He lost his sight in 1902, when he was 8 years old, and started his study in koto under the guidance of Nakajima Kengyo II, dedicating the rest of his life to the instrument. In 1907 he moved with his family to Incheon, in...
  
   (1994) Composer, musician
• Miyazawa Kenji
  Kenji Miyazawa
  was a Japanese poet and author of children's literature in the early Shōwa period of Japan. He was also known as a devout Buddhist, vegetarian and social activist.-Early life:...
  
   (1996) Author, poet
• Miyazawa Rie
  Rie Miyazawa
  is a Japanese actress and former model.- Life and career :Rie Miyazawa was born in Tokyo and raised by her mother. Since her debut at age 11 in an advertisement for Kit Kat, she has many films, television shows, commercials, stage appearances and photo books to her credit. She starred in the...
  
   (2006) Actress
• Mori Masayuki (2006) Actor
• Mori Ōgai
  Mori Ogai
  was a Japanese physician, translator, novelist and poet. is considered his major work.- Early life :Mori was born as Mori Rintarō in Tsuwano, Iwami province . His family were hereditary physicians to the daimyō of the Tsuwano Domain...
  
   (1951, 1990) Physician, translator, novelist, poet
• Motoori Norinaga
  Motoori Norinaga
  was a Japanese scholar of Kokugaku active during the Edo period. He is probably the best known and most prominent of all scholars in this tradition.-Life:...
  
   (2001) Scholar of Kokugaku

N

• Nagaoka Hantaro (2000, 2003) Physicist
• Nagashima Shigeo
  Shigeo Nagashima
  is a Japanese former professional baseball player and manager.Nagashima was by far the most popular figure in Japanese baseball during his career. His contributions to the development of the sport in Japan are immeasurable.-Biography:...
  
   (2000) Baseball player
• Nakamura Baigyoku III (1991) Kabuki actor
• Nakamura Ganjiro II (1991) Kabuki actor
• Nakamura Hakuo I (1992) Kabuki actor
• Nakamura Kichiemon I
  Nakamura Kichiemon I
  was a Japanese actor and kabuki performer. In 1945, he became the senior living kabuki actor in Japan.Kichiemon construed his career in terms of "lifelong study" of that which cannot be seen in an actor's performance....
  
   (1992) Kabuki actor
• Nakamura Teijo (2000) Poet
• Nakamura Utaemon VI
  Nakamura Utaemon VI
  was a Japanese kabuki performer and an artistic director of the Kabuki-za in Tokyo. He was a prominent member of a family of kabuki actors from the Keihanshin region....
  
   (1991) Kabuki actor
• Nakamura Kanzaburo XVII (1992) Kabuki actor
• Nakatsuhime (1988)
• Nakaya Ukichiro (2000) Physicist
• Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan
  Naruhito, Crown Prince of Japan
  is the eldest son of Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, which makes him the heir apparent to the Chrysanthemum Throne of Japan.-Early life and education:...
  
   (1993, 2000) Prince
• Naruse Jinzo (2000) Educator
• Natsume Masako (2006) Actress
• Natsume Soseki
  Natsume Soseki
  , born ', is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period . He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales...
  
   (1950, 1999) Novelist
• Niijima Jo
  Joseph Hardy Neesima
  was a Japanese educator of the Meiji era, the founder of Doshisha University and Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts.Neesima was born in Edo , the son of a retainer of the Itakura clan of Annaka...
  
   (1950) Educator
• Nishi Amane
  Nishi Amane
  was a philosopher in Meiji period Japan who helped introduce Western philosophy into mainstream Japanese education.-Early life:Nishi was born in Tsuwano Domain of Iwami Province as the son of a samurai physician who practiced Chinese medicine...
  
   (1952) Philosopher
• Nishida Kitaro
  Nishida Kitaro
  was a prominent Japanese philosopher, founder of what has been called the Kyoto School of philosophy. He graduated from The University of Tokyo during the Meiji period in 1894 with a degree in philosophy. He was named professor of the Fourth High School in Ishikawa Prefecture in 1899 and later...
  
   (1995) Philosopher
• Nishina Yoshio
  Yoshio Nishina
  was the founding father of modern physics research in Japan. He co-authored the well-known Klein–Nishina formula. He was a principal investigator of RIKEN and mentored generations...
  
   (1990) Physicist
• Nitobe Inazo (1952) Agricultural Economist, Author, Educator, Diplomat, Politician
• Nogi Maresuke (1937, 1938, 1942, 1944, 1945) General
• Noguchi Hideyo
  Hideyo Noguchi
  , also known as , was a prominent Japanese bacteriologist who discovered the agent of syphilis as the cause of progressive paralytic disease in 1911.-Early life:...
  
   (1949, 1999) Doctor, bacteriologist
• Noguchi, Isamu
  Isamu Noguchi
  was a prominent Japanese American artist and landscape architect whose artistic career spanned six decades, from the 1920s onward. Known for his sculpture and public works, Noguchi also designed stage sets for various Martha Graham productions, and several mass-produced lamps and furniture pieces,...
  
   (2004) Japanese - American artist, landscape architect
• Nukata no Ookimi (1981)

O

• Oda Mikio
  Mikio Oda
  was a Japanese athlete and the first Japanese Olympic gold medalist. He was the first Asian Olympic champion in an individual event.Oda's main event was triple jump, but he also competed in long jump and high jump, and participated in all three events in the 1924, 1928 and 1932 Summer Olympics...
  
   (2000) Athlete
• Oe Kenzaburo
  Kenzaburo Oe
  is a Japanese author and a major figure in contemporary Japanese literature. His works, strongly influenced by French and American literature and literary theory, deal with political, social and philosophical issues including nuclear weapons, social non-conformism and existentialism.Ōe was awarded...
  
   (2000) Author
• Ogiya Yugiri (1991)
• Oh Sadaharu
  Sadaharu Oh
  Sadaharu Oh, or Wang Chenchih , is a retired Japanese-Taiwanese baseball player and manager. He batted and threw left-handed and primarily played first base. Oh, who was born in Sumida, Tokyo the son of a Taiwanese father and a Japanese mother, had originally signed with the powerhouse Yomiuri...
  
   (2000) Baseball player
• Okakura Tenshin
  Okakura Kakuzo
  was a Japanese scholar who contributed to the development of arts in Japan. Outside of Japan, he is chiefly remembered today as the author of The Book of Tea.-Biography:...
  
   (1952) Scholar
• Okochi Denjiro (2006) Actor
• Onoe Baiko VII (1992) Kabuki actor
• Onoe Bairyoku II (1992) Kabuki actor
• Onoe Kikugoro VI (1991) Kabuki actor
• Ono no Komachi
  Ono no Komachi
  was a famous Japanese waka poet, one of the Rokkasen—the Six best Waka poets of the early Heian period. She was noted as a rare beauty; Komachi is a symbol of a beautiful woman in Japan. She also figures among the Thirty-six Poetry Immortals....
  
   (2005) Poet
• Ono no Michikaze
  Ono no Michikaze
  was a prominent Shodōka who lived in the Heian period . One of the so-called Sanseki 三跡 , along with Fujiwara no Sukemasa and Fujiwara no Yukinari...
  
   (2000 L) Calligrapher
• Oshi kochi no Mitsune (2006)
• Otani Oniji (1984) Kabuki actor
• Ōtsuki Fumihiko
  Otsuki Fumihiko
  was a Japanese lexicographer, linguist, and historian. He is best known for two Japanese-language dictionaries that he edited, Genkai and its successor Daigenkai , and for his studies of Japanese grammar.-Biography:Ōtsuki Fumihiko was born in the section of Edo in what is now part of Ginza,...
  
   (2000) Lexicographer, Linguist, Historian
• Ozaki Yukio
  Yukio Ozaki
  was a liberal Japanese politician, born in modern-day Sagamihara, Kanagawa. Ozaki served in the House of Representatives of the Japanese Diet for 63 years, from 1890-1953...
  
   (1960) Politician
• Ozawa Seiji
  Seiji Ozawa
  is a Japanese conductor, particularly noted for his interpretations of large-scale late Romantic works. He is most known for his work as music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra and principal conductor of the Vienna State Opera.-Early years:...
  
   (2000) Conductor
• Ozu Yasujiro
  Yasujiro Ozu
  was a prominent Japanese film director and script writer. He is known for his distinctive technical style, developed during the silent era. Marriage and family, especially the relationships between the generations, are among the most persistent themes in his body of work...
  
   (2003 L) Film director

R

• Raiden Tameemon (1978) Sumo Wrestler
• Rikidōzan
  Rikidozan
  , better known as Rikidōzan , was a Korean Japanese professional wrestler, known as the "Father of Puroresu" and one of the most influential men in wrestling history. Initially, he had moved from his native country Korea to Japan to become a sumo wrestler...
  
   (2000) Wrestler
• Russell, George (1949) Boy Scout
• Ryu Chishu
  Chishu Ryu
  was a famous Japanese film actor, a favourite of the director Yasujiro Ozu. From 1928 to 1992 he appeared in at least 155 films, including Ozu's Tokyo Story and Yoshitaro Nomura's Castle of Sand...
  
   (2006) Actor

S

• Saito Mokichi
  Saito Mokichi
  was a Japanese poet of the Taishō period, a member of Araragi school, and a psychiatrist.The psychiatrist Shigeta Saitō is his first son, the novelist Morio Kita is his second son and the essayist Yuka Saitō is his granddaughter....
  
   (2003) Poet
• Saito Musashibo Benkei
  Saito Musashibo Benkei
  , popularly called Benkei, was a Japanese warrior monk who served Minamoto no Yoshitsune. He is commonly depicted as a man of great strength and loyalty, and a popular subject of Japanese folklore.-Biography:...
  
   (1991) Warrior
• Sakai Yoshinori (1996) Athlete, who lit the Olympic Flame, 1964. Former Fuji Television Director
• Sakamoto Ryoma
  Sakamoto Ryoma
  was a leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate during the Bakumatsu period in Japan. Ryōma used the alias .- Early life :Ryōma was born in Kōchi, of Tosa han . By the Japanese calendar, this was the sixth year of Tenpō...
  
   (2000) Leader of the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa bakufu
• Sanada Hiroyuki
  Hiroyuki Sanada
  is a Japanese actor.-Life and career:Sanada was born in Tokyo. Originally aiming to be an action star, starting with shorinji kempo, he eventually took up Kyokushin kaikan Sanada began training at age 11 with actor and martial arts star Sonny Chiba's Japan Action Club where he developed good...
  
   (2006) Actor
• Sano Tsunetami
  Sano Tsunetami
  Count was a Japanese statesman and founder of the Japanese Red Cross Society. His son, Admiral Sano Tsuneha, was a leading figure in the establishment of the Scout Association of Japan.-Biography:...
  
   (1939) Statesman, Founder of the Japanese Red Cross Society
• Sanyutei Ensho VI (1999) Rakugo Teller
• Sata Keiji (2000) Actor
• Sato Ichiei (1999 L) Poet
• Sawamura Eiji
  Eiji Sawamura
  Eiji Sawamura was a Japanese professional baseball player...
  
   (2000) Baseball player
• Seki Takakazu (1992) Mathematician
• Shiba Ryotaro
  Ryotaro Shiba
  , born in Osaka, Japan, was a Japanese author best known for his novels about historical events in Japan and on the Northeast Asian sub-continent, as well as his historical and cultural essays pertaining to Japan and its relationship to the rest of the world....
  
   (2000) Novelist
• Shigemitsu Mamoru
  Mamoru Shigemitsu
  was a Japanese diplomat and politician in the Empire of Japan, who served as the Japanese Minister of Foreign Affairs at the end of World War II.-Biography:...
  
   (2000) Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Shimamura Hogetsu (1999) Writer
• Shimazaki Toson
  Shimazaki Toson
  is the pen-name of Shimazaki Haruki, a Japanese author, active in the Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa periods of Japan. He began his career as a romantic poet, but went on to establish himself as a major proponent of naturalism in Japanese fiction.-Early life:...
  
   (1993) Author
• Shinmi Masaoki (1960) Ambassador
• Shirase Nobu
  Shirase Nobu
  was a Japanese army officer who led the Japanese Antarctic Expedition, 1910–12. This expedition explored the coastal area of King Edward VII Land and the eastern part of the Ross Ice Shelf, reaching a latitude of 80°05'S...
  
   (1960, 1999) Explorer
• Sho Deikun (1993)
• Shoriki Matsutaro
  Matsutaro Shoriki
  was the father of Japanese professional baseball. Born in Daimon, Toyama, he was a media mogul, owned the Yomiuri Shimbun, one of Japan's major daily newspapers, and founded Japan's first commercial television station, Nippon Television Network Corporation...
  
   (1984) Owner of Yomiuri Media Group, Minister of Science Technology
• Shotoku Taishi
  Prince Shotoku
  , also known as or , was a semi-legendary regent and a politician of the Asuka period in Japan who served under Empress Suiko. He was a son of Emperor Yōmei and his younger half-sister Princess Anahobe no Hashihito. His parents were relatives of the ruling Soga clan, and was involved in the defeat...
  
   (2000) Prince
• Siebold, Philipp Franz von
  Philipp Franz von Siebold
  Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold was a German physician and traveller. He was the first European to teach Western medicine in Japan...
  
   (1996) German physician
• Soga Goro (1992)
• Soga Juro (1992)
• Sugihara Chiune
  Chiune Sugihara
  was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Japanese Empire in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from...
  
   (2000) Diplomat
• Soma Gyofu (1995 L) Poet
• Suo no Naishi (2006)
• Suzuki Umetaro
  Umetaro Suzuki
  was a Japanese scientist, born in Shizuoka Prefecture. He was one of the students of famed German Chemist, Emil Fisher. In 1910 he was researching the effects of rice bran in curing patients of beriberi when he discovered an active fraction, which he patented as "aberic acid" . In 1935, this...
  
   (1993) Scientist

T

• Takamine Hideko
  Hideko Takamine
  was a Japanese actress who began as a child actor and maintained her fame in a career that spanned nine decades.-Life and career:Born in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan, Takamine's first role was in the Shochiku studio's 1929 film Mother , which brought her tremendous popularity as a child actor. Soon...
  
   (2006) Actress
• Takamura Kotaro
  Kotaro Takamura
  was a Japanese poet and sculptor.-Biography:Kōtarō was the son of Takamura Kōun, a renowned Japanese sculptor.He graduated from the Tokyo School of Fine Arts in 1902, where he studied sculpture...
  
   (2000) Poet and sculptor
• Takehisa Yumeji
  Takehisa Yumeji
  , was a Japanese poet and painter. Takehisa died in 1934 at the age of 49. He never studied drawing in any painting school nor under any teacher formally...
  
   (1999) Painter
• Takekuma (1979) Sumo Wrestler
• Takemoto Gidayu
  Takemoto Gidayu
  was a jōruri chanter and the creator of a style of chanted narration for Japan's puppet theatre which has been used ever since. The name "gidayū" has since become the term for all jōruri chanters...
  
   (2001) Gidayu bushi Singer
• Takizawa Bakin
  Kyokutei Bakin
  was a late Japanese Edo period gesaku author best known for works such as Nansō Satomi Hakkenden and Chinsetsu Yumiharizuki.-Life:He was born as , he wrote under the pen name which is a pun as the kanji may also be read as Kuruwa de Makoto meaning a man who is truly devoted to the courtesans of...
  
   (1998) Author
• Tanaka Kinuyo
  Kinuyo Tanaka
  was a Japanese actress and director.Tanaka was born in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. She became a leading actress at an early age, appearing in Yasujirō Ozu's I Graduated, But... in 1929...
  
   (2000) Actress
• Tanakadate Aikitsu (2002) Geophysicist
• Terada Torahiko (1952) physicist, author
• Tezuka Osamu
  Osamu Tezuka
  was a Japanese cartoonist, manga artist, animator, producer, activist and medical doctor, although he never practiced medicine. Born in Osaka Prefecture, he is best known as the creator of Astro Boy, Kimba the White Lion and Black Jack...
  
   (1997) Manga artist, animator
• Togo Heihachiro
  Togo Heihachiro
  Fleet Admiral Marquis was a Fleet Admiral in the Imperial Japanese Navy and one of Japan's greatest naval heroes. He was termed by Western journalists as "the Nelson of the East".-Early life:...
  
   (1937, 1938, 1942, 1944, 1945) Fleet Admiral
• Tomii Masaaki (1999) Jurist
• Tsuboi Sakae (2000) Novelist, Poet
• Tsuda Umeko
  Tsuda Umeko
  was an Japanese educator, feminist and pioneer in education for women in Meiji period Japan. Originally named , with mume or ume referring to the Japanese plum, she went by the name Ume Tsuda while studying in the United States before changing her name to Umeko in 1902.- Early life :Tsuda Umeko...
  
   (2000) Educator
• Tsuruta Koji
  Koji Tsuruta
  was a Japanese actor who appeared in almost 260 feature films.-Career:Born in Shizuoka Prefecture as Eiichi Ono, Tsuruta was studying at Kansai University when he was drafted into the Japanese Imperial Navy. After the war he joined Kōkichi Takada's theater troupe and made his film debut at Shochiku...
  
   (2006) Actor
• Tsuruta Yoshiyuki
  Tsuruta Yoshiyuki
  was a Japanese swimmer. He won a gold medal in the Amsterdam Olympics and the Los Angeles Olympics.He was born in Kagoshima, Japan.-External links:*...
  
   (2000) Swimmer
• Tsubouchi Shoyo
  Tsubouchi Shoyo
  __NoTOC__ was a Japanese author, critic, playwright, translator, editor, educator, and professor at Waseda University. He was born Tsubouchi Yūzō , in Gifu prefecture...
  
   (1950) Author, Critic, Playwright, Translator

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• Uchimura Kanzo
  Uchimura Kanzo
  was a Japanese author, Christian evangelist, and the founder of the Nonchurch Movement of Christianity in the Meiji and Taishō period Japan.-Early life:...
  
   (1951) Author, Christian Evangelist
• Uehara Ken (2000) Actor
• Uemura Shoen
  Uemura Shoen
  was the pseudonym of an important woman artist in Meiji, Taishō and early Shōwa period Japanese painting. Her real name was Uemura Tsune. Shōen was known primarily for her bijinga paintings of beautiful women in the nihonga style, although she also produced numerous works on historical themes and...
  
   (1999) Painter
• Ume Kenjirō
  Ume Kenjiro
  was a legal scholar in Meiji period Japan, and a founder of Hosei University.- Life and career :Ume was born as the second son of the domain doctor of Matsue domain, Izumo Province . He was sent to study French at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, and upon graduation was employed by the...
  
   (1952, 1999) Legal scholar
• Yoshijirō Umezu (2000) Chief commander of the Japanese army

Y

• Yakushimaru Hiroko
  Hiroko Yakushimaru
  is a Japanese actress and vocalist.After passing the audition for the film produced by Haruki Kadokawa, she began her acting career. Along with teen idols Tomoyo Harada and Noriko Watanabe who made debut after a similar process, she was often described as one of "Kadokawa Sannimusume" in her early...
  
   (2006) Actress, singer
• Yakusho Koji (2006) Actor
• Yamabe no Akahito
  Yamabe no Akahito
  Yamabe no Akahito was a poet of the Nara period in Japan. The Man'yōshū, an ancient anthology, contains 13 choka and 37 tanka of his. Many of his poems were composed during journeys with Emperor Shōmu between 724 and 736...
  
   (2006) Poet
• Yamamoto Yuzo (2000) Novelist, playwright
• Yanagiya Kosan V (1999) Rakugo Teller
• Yorozuya Kinnosuke (2006) Actor
• Yosano Akiko
  Yosano Akiko
  was the pen-name of a Japanese author, poet, pioneering feminist, pacifist, and social reformer, active in the late Meiji period as well as the Taishō and early Showa periods of Japan. Her name at birth was Otori Shô. She is one of the most famous, and most controversial, post-classical woman poets...
  
   (1992, 1999) Author, poet, social reformer
• Yoshida Shigeru
  Shigeru Yoshida
  , KCVO was a Japanese diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Japan from 1946 to 1947 and from 1948 to 1954.-Early life:...
  
   (1996) Prime Minister
• Yoshida Shoin
  Yoshida Shoin
  Yoshida Shōin was one of the most distinguished intellectuals in the closing days of the Tokugawa shogunate...
  
   (1959) Scholar
• Yoshikawa Eiji
  Eiji Yoshikawa
  was a Japanese historical novelist, probably one of the best and most famous authors in the genre. Among his most well-known novels, most are revisions of past works. He was mainly influenced by classics such as The Tale of the Heike, Tale of Genji, Outlaws of the Marsh, and Romance of the Three...
  
   (2000) Novelist
• Yoshinaga Sayuri (2006) Actress
• Yoshino Sakuzo (1999) Author, political thinker
• Yoshioka Yayoi
  Yoshioka Yayoi
  was a physician and women's rights activist, who founded the in 1900, as the first medical school for women in Japan. She was also known as Washiyama Yayoi.-Biography:...
  
   (2000) Physician, Women's rights activist
• Yukawa Hideki
  Hideki Yukawa
  né , was a Japanese theoretical physicist and the first Japanese Nobel laureate.-Biography:Yukawa was born in Tokyo and grew up in Kyoto. In 1929, after receiving his degree from Kyoto Imperial University, he stayed on as a lecturer for four years. After graduation, he was interested in...
  
  (1985, 2000) Theoretical physicist