35.6855° N, 139.7239° E
TOKYO
Most Famous People Born in Tokyo, Japan
- Notable people
- 5,034
- Peak decade
- 1980s
- Median birth year
- 1957
- Most distinctive
- Seiyū 131.4×
An ecosystem of fame that barely exists outside Japan. Tokyo's two most distinctive professions — seiyū (voice actor) at more than 130 times the global rate and manga artist at over 60 times — are job titles that simply don't have English equivalents, and they sit alongside one of the world's biggest novelist, photographer, and model benches. The list also runs from Tokugawa shoguns through the woodblock masters of Edo to the directors and animators who exported postwar Japanese cinema to the world.
One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Tokyo during each.
Notable Births by Decade
Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 644 notable births.
What Tokyo Is Known For
Click any row to filter the list of people below.
Actor is Tokyo's biggest profession — 17% of all notables (840).
Tokyo over-indexes on seiyū — 131.4× the global rate.
Tokyo under-produces politician — only 0.3× the global rate.
Profession Mix Over Time
Each band shows a profession family's share of Tokyo's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.
- Film & TV
- Sports
- Music
- Art & Design
- Writing
- Science
- Other
- Field: Writer Clear ×
Liv Ullmann
Born 1938
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
1892 - 1927
Natsume Sōseki
1867 - 1916
Jun'ichirō Tanizaki
1886 - 1965
Shūsaku Endō
1923 - 1996
Banana Yoshimoto
Born 1964
Miyuki Miyabe
Born 1960
Kafū Nagai
1879 - 1959
Futabatei Shimei
1864 - 1909
Takeo Arishima
1878 - 1923
Saneatsu Mushanokōji
1885 - 1976
Eiko Kadono
Born 1935
Raichō Hiratsuka
1886 - 1971
Tatsuo Hori
1904 - 1953
Marie Kondo
Born 1984
Trevanian
1931 - 2005
Hideo Kobayashi
1902 - 1983
Nahoko Uehashi
Born 1962
Miho Obana
Born 1970
Kunio Kishida
1890 - 1954
Hirotada Ototake
Born 1976
Shōtarō Ikenami
1923 - 1990
Mamare Touno
Born 1973
Shikitei Sanba
1776 - 1822
Tomoyoshi Murayama
1901 - 1977
Kawatake Mokuami
1816 - 1893
Kyotaro Nishimura
Born 1930
Christopher Reich
Born 1961
Yukiko Motoya
Born 1979
Marley Carib
1947 - 2018
Shin'ichirō Nakamura
1918 - 1997
Funahashi Seiichi
1904 - 1976
Oriza Hirata
Born 1962
Tarō Gomi
Born 1945
Shun Akiyama
1930 - 2013
Yuka Murayama
Born 1964
Yoshirō Nagayo
1888 - 1961
Shizuko Natsuki
1938 - 2016
Sawako Agawa
Born 1953
Yumie Hiraiwa
Born 1932
Oswald Wynd
1913 - 1998
Tsuruya Namboku IV
1755 - 1829
Nakajima Utako
1844 - 1903
Satoshi Kitamura
Born 1956
Minoru Kawakami
Born 1975
Park Jaesam
1933 - 1997
Kazuko Hosoki
Born 1938
Hiroshi Sakagami
Born 1936
Chen Yingzhen
1937 - 2016
Yoshiko Shibaki
1914 - 1991
Tsuneo Tomita
1904 - 1967
Terry Ito
Born 1949
Jean Little
1932 - 2020
Mah Chonggi
Born 1939
Takako Hashimoto
1899 - 1963
Koharu Kisaragi
1956 - 2000
Toshitaka Hidaka
1930 - 2009
Takeo Okuno
1926 - 1997
Tan Onuma
1918 - 1996
Kenzō Nakajima
1903 - 1979
Saburo Kawamoto
Born 1944
Michiko Inukai
1921 - 2017
Hōseidō Kisanji
1735 - 1813
Akiko Ikeda
Born 1950
Takeda Miho (illustratrice)
Born 1959
Masako Shirasu
1910 - 1998
Michiko Kanba
1937 - 1960
Guido Viale
Born 1943
Kazu Ando
Born 1948
Kazuo Iwamura
Born 1939
Nakane Kōtei
1839 - 1913
Elin Lindqvist
Born 1982
Yasuo Maekawa
1921 - 2003
Munefusa Tokugawa
Born 1929
Asuka Fujimori
Born 1978
Yūsaku Igarashi
Born 1978
Mitsu Tanaka
Born 1945
Haru M. Reischauer
1915 - 1998
Toni Maraini
Born 1941
Yoshihiko Kazamaru
Born 1958
Kōshō Niwano
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Issei Tanaka
Born 1932
Teruto Soejima
1931 - 2014
Shiba Zenkō
1750 - 1793
Sakurada Jisuke I
1734 - 1806
Kōichi Toyosaki
1935 - 1989
Mei Matsuoka
Born 1981
Grace James
1882 - 1965
Muneo Yoshikawa
Born 1938
Molly Cochran
Born 1949
Kunichi Nomura
Born 1974
Luis Merino Reyes
1912 - 2011