Japanese actor and comedian. He has had starring roles in many major art-house films, including Ota in Edward Yang's Yi Yi, the title character in Jun Ichikawa's Tony Takitani (an adaptation of the Haruki Murakami short story), the role of Japanese Emperor Hirohito in Aleksandr Sokurov's 2005 film The Sun, and Inoue Masashige (The Inquisitor) in Martin Scorsese's Silence.