Kenichi Yajima

Kenichi Yajima
Kenichi Yajima
Born	March 1, 1956 (age 68); Gifu, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1981–present

Kenichi Yajima (矢島健一, Yajima Ken'ichi, born March 1, 1956 in Gifu) is a Japanese actor.

Career

Graduating from Meiji Gakuin University, Yajima debuted as an actor in 1981.^[1]^[2] A frequent player in the films of Masato Harada, Yajima often plays yakuza and other bad guys, but can also do comic relief.^[2] He has appeared in over 200 TV dramas and 70 films.^[1]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref.
1993	Sonatine	Takahashi	Takeshi Kitano
1995	Kamikaze Taxi	Ishida	Masato Harada
1997	Hana-bi	Doctor	Takeshi Kitano
1999	Spellbound	Takuya Ishii	Masato Harada
2001	Onmyoji	Fujiwara no Morosuke	Yōjirō Takita
2004	Lady Joker	Hidetsugu Kanzaki	Hideyuki Hirayama
2004	Kagen no Tsuki	Sayaka's father	Ken Nikai
2006	Tokyo Friends: The Movie	Kitahara	Kozo Nagayama
	The Uchōten Hotel	Arai	Kōki Mitani
	Sinking of Japan	Minister for Foreign Affairs	Shinji Higuchi
	Strawberry Shortcakes	Ōsaki	Hitoshi Yazaki
2007	Densen Uta	Yorii	Masato Harada
2008	Climber's High	Moriya	Masato Harada
2008	10 Promises to My Dog	Dr. Sakamoto	Katsuhide Motoki
2009	Shizumanu Taiyō	Taketarō Aoyama	Setsurō Wakamatsu
2010	Sword of Desperation	Yabe Magochiyo	Hideyuki Hirayama
2012	Lesson of the Evil	Detective Shimozuru	Takashi Miike
2014	A Samurai Chronicle		Takashi Koizumi
2015	Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen	Hōjō	Takeshi Kitano
	Flying Colors		Nobuhiro Doi
	The Emperor in August	Kōichi Kido	Masato Harada
2016	Fueled: The Man They Called Pirate		Takashi Yamazaki
2016	Shin Godzilla	Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism	Hideaki Anno Shinji Higuchi
2017	Reminiscence		Yasuo Furuhata
2017	Manhunt		John Woo	Chinese film
2018	Killing for the Prosecution	Takashima	Masato Harada
	Recall	Manabe	Katsuhide Motoki
	The Blood of Wolves	Keiji Tomotake	Kazuya Shiraishi		^[3]
	My Friend "A"		Takahisa Zeze
	Last Winter, We Parted		Tomoyuki Takimoto		^[4]
2020	Fukushima 50		Setsurō Wakamatsu
2020	All About March		Kazuhiko Yukawa
2021	Last of the Wolves	Keiji Tomotake	Kazuya Shiraishi		^[3]
2022	The Pass: Last Days of the Samurai	Matsudaira Sadaaki	Takashi Koizumi		^[5]
	Akira and Akira		Takahiro Miki		^[6]
	The Lines That Define Me	Kunieda	Norihiro Koizumi		^[7]
2023	Kubi	Honda Tadakatsu	Takeshi Kitano		^[8]
2025	Muromachi Outsiders		Yu Irie		^[9]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Network	Notes	Ref.
1981	Omoide Zukuri	Okazaki	TBS	Debut role
1984	Romance		NHK	Asadora
1989	Kasuga no Tsubone	Fukushima Masanori	NHK	Taiga drama
1990	Wataru Seken wa Oni Bakari	Narita	TBS
1999	Keizoku	Seiichi Hayashida	TBS
2004	Itoshi Kimi e	Yukihiko Ogasawara	CX
2004	Shinsengumi!	Hirosawa Tomijirō	NHK	Taiga drama
2006	Kōmyō ga Tsuji	Naoe Kanetsugu	NHK	Taiga drama
2008	Atsuhime	Matsudaira Yoshinaga	NHK	Taiga drama
2010	Sunao ni Narenakute	Tomohiko Yamamoto	CX
2010	Hammer Session!	Suguru Kai	TBS
2011	Ohisama	Hagiwara	NHK	Asadora
2012	Taira no Kiyomori	Fujiwara no Norinaga	NHK	Taiga drama
2012	Jun and Ai	Masakuni Yoneda	NHK	Asadora
2015	Shingari	Nakanishi	Wowow
2017	Naotora: The Lady Warlord	Sekiguchi Ujitsune	NHK	Taiga drama
2017	Ishitsubute	Kunitomo	Wowow
2023	What Will You Do, Ieyasu?	Kira Yoshiakira	NHK	Taiga drama	^[10]
2024	Laughing Matryoshka	Ikuo Morohashi	TBS	Drama	^[11]

References

External links

Kenichi Yajima at IMDb

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