34.6907° N, 135.5093° E
OSAKA
Most Famous People Born in Osaka, Japan
- Notable people
- 1,327
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1969
- Most distinctive
- Seiyū 79.4×
Japan's second commercial capital, with a comedy and entertainment bench that runs nearly as deep as Tokyo's. Osaka's distinctive professions are voice actors (seiyū) at nearly eighty times the global rate, manga artists at nearly sixty, sumo wrestlers (rikishi), martial artists, figure skaters, gymnasts, wrestlers, and novelists — the statistical footprint of Yoshimoto Kogyo, the sumo stables of the Kansai, and a publishing industry that has always argued with Tokyo's. Almost the entire list is 20th-century.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Osaka during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 224 notable births.
What Osaka Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Football is Osaka's biggest profession — 16% of all notables (214).
Osaka over-indexes on seiyū — 79.4× the global rate.
Osaka under-produces politician — only 0.2× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Osaka's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Sports
- Film & TV
- Music
- Art & Design
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Filtered to 1890s Clear ×
Yasunari Kawabata
1899 - 1972
Luther Gulick (social scientist)
1892 - 1993
Yuzo Saeki
1898 - 1928
Sanjugo Naoki
1891 - 1934
Seiichiro Kashio
1892 - 1962
Kenzō Masaoka
1898 - 1988
Yusuke Hagihara
1897 - 1979
Yoshie Fujiwara
1898 - 1976
Takeichi Harada
1899 - 1978
Ryotaro Azuma
1893 - 1983
Masahiro Yasuoka
1898 - 1983
Sueji Umehara
1893 - 1983
Eiko Yamazawa
1899 - 1995
Hideyoshi Obata
1890 - 1944
Shigeharu Matsumoto
1899 - 1989
Tsuneji Matsuda
1895 - 1970
Eugene Dooman
1890 - 1969
Chigusa Kitani
1895 - 1947
Terauchi Manjirō
1890 - 1964
Ōnishiki Uichirō
1891 - 1941
Ichiro Kaga
1898 - 1946
Suita Sōboku
1890 - 1983
Ellis Herndon Hudson
1890 - 1992
Harry Kawabe
1890 - 1969