Yakusho Koji on 48 Years in Japanese Cinema and How ‘Shall We Dance?’ Brought Him to Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’

Apr 27, 2026 1:55am PT Yakusho Koji on 48 Years in Japanese Cinema and How ‘Shall We Dance?’ Brought Him to Wim Wenders’ ‘Perfect Days’

The Japanese star, honored with the Far East Film Festival's Golden Mulberry by Wenders, describes the lifetime achievement award as "a whip of love" and reflects on four decades of physical dedication to his craft

By Naman Ramachandran

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Naman Ramachandran

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When Nakadai Tatsuya, one of Japan’s most celebrated actors, decided that his young student’s surname was too dull for the stage, he reached for an unlikely inspiration. Hashimoto Koji — as the actor was called then — had been working at a Tokyo municipal office before auditioning for Nakadai’s acting school. The word for such an office in Japanese is yakusho. The stage name followed naturally, carrying with it a wish: that this unknown clerk’s range of roles would one day be as wide as possible.

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