Koshi Mizukami

In this Japanese name, the surname is Mizukami.

Koshi Mizukami (水上恒司, Mizukami Kōshi; born 12 May 1999) is a Japanese actor. Until August 2022 he worked under the stage name Kenshi Okada (岡田健史).^[2]

Koshi Mizukami
Born	(1999-05-12) 12 May 1999 (age 26) Fukuoka,[1] Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
Other names	Kenshi Okada Koji Mizukami[a]
Education	Soseikan High School
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2018–present
Agent	HAKU.LLC
Japanese name
Kanji	水上恒司
Hiragana	みずかみ こうし
Transcriptions Romanization Mizukami Kōshi
Website	koshimizukami.com

Early life

Mizukami was born on 12 May 1999 in Higashi ward, Fukuoka Prefecture.^[3] He started playing baseball in the second grade of elementary school and mainly served as a catcher.^[4] He graduated from Soseikan High School.^[5] In addition, Riku Kawahara [ja] of the professional baseball team Hanshin Tigers was a junior in the baseball club, Mizukami was a catcher and Kawahara was a pitcher.^[6][7]

Career

In the winter of his first year of junior high school, he was first scouted by the entertainment agency Spice Power (the male division of talent agency Sweet Power [ja]). After that, he was pursued by the agency for five years, but he kept turning down the offer as he was immersed in baseball and was aiming to play in Koshien.^[8]

In 2017, after departing from the baseball club when he was in his third year of high school, he was scouted by a teacher who was an adviser to the drama club, and played as a kamikaze member in a work called "Hair combing August" and participated in the prefectural high school drama competition.^[8] This work would win the highest award at the Kyushu block of the prefectural competition and was recommended for the national competition. However, this did not come to be due to the format of the high school drama competition, which is held within the year up to the block competition and the national competition, but Mizukami graduated from high school in that subsequent year, thus he was unable to compete for the national competition.^[8] Originally, he had planned to go to college and continue playing baseball, but after participating in the prefectural tournament, he began to desire becoming an actor. His parents, who were against his decision at first came around eventually because they were so pleased with his acting debut.^[8]

After auditioning for the TV drama "Meet Me After School" on TBS, which started broadcasting in October 2018, he was selected as the main character's partner, portrayed by Kasumi Arimura, and made his debut as an actor.^[9] For this work he received the Newcomer Award at the 28th TV Life Drama Grand Prize.^[10]

In July 2019, he starred in the special drama commemorating the 50th anniversary of the opening of Fukuoka Broadcasting Don't You Think Girls Who Talk in Hakata Dialect Are Cute? [ja].^[11]

In 2020 he made his film debut in the movie All About March [ja],^[12] he then appeared in his second television drama MIU404 [ja]^[13]

In December 2020, he won first place in the NEXT category of the popular voting project "National Treasure Class Handsome Ranking" in the second half of 2020 of the women's fashion magazine ViVi.^[14]

In 2021, he appeared in the NHK Taiga drama Reach Beyond the Blue Sky.^[5] On March 19 of the same year, he won the New Actor Award in the 44th Japan Academy Award for three works; All About March,^[12] The Legacy of Dr. Death: Black File,^[15] and Hope.^[16]

In May 2021, he filed a provisional injunction with the court to cancel the contract with his agency, Mizukami agreed to continue working with the same agency until the expiration of the contract at the end of March 2023, and not to renew the contract after expiration, and a settlement was reached.^[17][18]

On 31 August 2022, he announced that his contract with his agency had ended ahead of schedule and that he would continue his activities under his real name, Koshi Mizukami.^[19][2] In September, he formed a business alliance with the company HAKU.^[20]

On 14 February 2023, it was announced that he would play Aisuke Murayama in the NHK serial TV drama Boogie Woogie.^[21][5] In the same year, Mizukami starred alongside Haruka Fukuhara in the film Till We Meet Again on the Lily Hill, which was released on December 8, 2023. For his role as kamikaze pilot Akira Sakuma, he was nominated for the Best Actor Award at the 47th Japan Academy Film Prize. The film also became a huge hit, grossing over 4 billion yen.^[22]

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2020	All About March	Ayumu		[12]
	Hope	Tadashi Ishikawa		[16]
	The Legacy of Dr. Death: Black File	Kei Sawada		[15]
	The Untold Tale of the Three Kingdoms	Sun Quan		[23]
2021	Caution, Hazardous Wife: The Movie	Juri Iwao		[24]
	And So the Baton Is Passed	Kento Hayase		[25]
2022	Lesson in Murder	Masaya Kakei	Lead role	[26]
2023	Out	Kaname Abe		[27]
	Till We Meet Again on the Lily Hill	Akira Sakuma	Lead role	[28]
2024	After the Fever	Hayato		[29]
	Hakkenden: Fiction and Reality	Inukai Genpachi		[30]
	The Real You	Kishitani		[31]
	The Voices at War	Asakura		[32]
2025	Kowloon Generic Romance	Hajime Kudo	Lead role	[33]
	Dream Animals: The Movie	Elephant (voice)		[34]
	The Bird Is Calling	Yuji Kuki	Lead role	[35]
	Wind Breaker	Haruka Sakura	Lead role	[36]

Television drama

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2018	Meet Me After School	Akira Kuroiwa		[8]
2019	Doctor-X: Surgeon Michiko Daimon season 6	Kiyoaki Yokkaichi	Episode 4	[37]
	Don't You Think Girls Who Talk in Hakata Dialect Are Cute?	Miyako Azuma	Lead role; single-episode drama	[11]
2020	True Horror Stories 2020	Yōhei Ōno	Lead role; single-episode drama	[38]
	MIU404	Yohito Kokonoe		[13]
2021	Reach Beyond the Blue Sky	Odaka Heikurō	Taiga drama	[39]
	Date My Daughter!	Hikaru Irino		[40]
2023	Cinderella of Midsummer	Sōsuke Hayakawa		[41]
	Boogie Woogie	Aisuke Murayama	Asadora	[21]
2024	Golden Time: The Story of Kintaro Hattori	Kintarō Hattori (young adult)	Television film	[42]
	Blue Moment	Yugo Sonobe		[43]
2025	Monster	Yashiro Masato	Lead role	[44]
	Synanthrope	Kennosuke Tonari	Lead role	[45]

Web series

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2019	If You Follow Me, It's Over	Sotaro Nakamura	Lead role	[46]
2020	My Dear Nina	Atsushi Toyama	Lead role	[47]
2021	Another Story of the Tower of Sakura	Yuma Togashi	Lead role	[48]

Narration

Year	Title	Notes	Ref.
2019	Telementary "Telling Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Messenger"		[49]
2020	Serial meal TV essay “I want to eat with you”		[50]
2022	Heartnet TV "Who am I? Children born with AID"		[51]

Awards and nominations

Year presented, name of the award ceremony, category, nominee(s) of the award, and the result of the nomination

Year	Award ceremony	Category	Nominated work(s)	Result	Ref.
2018	28th TV Life Drama Grand Prize	Newcomer of the Year	Meet Me After School	Won	[10]
2020	33rd Nikkan Sports Film Awards	Yūjirō Ishihara Newcomer Award	All About March, The Legacy of Dr. Death: Black File, and Hope	Won	[52]
2021	44th Japan Academy Film Prize	New Actor Award	All About March, The Legacy of Dr. Death: Black File, and Hope	Won	[53]
2024	47th Japan Academy Film Prize	Best Actor	Till We Meet Again on the Lily Hill	Nominated	[22]
2025	49th Elan d'or Awards	Newcomer of the Year	Himself	Won	[54]

Bibliography

Photobook

• Kodou (12 June 2019)^[55]

Calendar

• "Kenshi Okada Calendar 2020.04 – 2021.03" (14 February 2020)^[56]
• "Kenshi Okada Calendar 2021.04 – 2022.03" (12 February 2021)^[57]

Notes

1. His name can also be romanized as Koji or Kouji Mizukami