Kiichi Nakai

Kiichi Nakai (中井 貴一, Nakai Kiichi; born 18 September 1961) is a Japanese actor. His name was given by Yasujirō Ozu. His father, Keiji Sada, also a movie actor, died when Nakai was only two years old. Nakai started his acting career while he was still in university and was awarded the Rookie of the Year at the Japan Academy Awards in 1981.

Kiichi Nakai
Born	(1961-09-18) September 18, 1961 (age 63) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1981–present

He won the Japan Academy Best Supporting Actor award in 1994 (for 47 Ronin) and Best Actor award in 2003 (for When the Last Sword Is Drawn). He also won the award for best supporting actor at the 19th Hochi Film Award for 47 Ronin.^[1]

In 2003 he played a Japanese delegate to a Chinese emperor of the Tang dynasty in Warriors of Heaven and Earth. Though a few of his lines are in Japanese, most are in Mandarin.

His older sister, Kie Nakai, is also an actress.

Selected filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1981	The Imperial Navy
1983	Tora-san Goes Religious?
1985	The Burmese Harp	Mizushima	Lead role
1986	Final Take		Lead role
1987	Princess from the Moon	Minister of the Military
1990	Tokyo Heaven	Fumio Amemiya
1992	Gekashitsu
1993	Moving		Lead role
1994	47 Ronin
1995	Marks		Lead role
1998	Begging for Love
1999	Owls' Castle		Lead role
2000	Tales of the Unusual	Ōishi Kuranosuke	Lead role
2001	All About Our House	Himself
	The Firefly
	Darkness in the Light		Lead role
2002	Shura no Mure
2003	When the Last Sword Is Drawn	Yoshimura Kanichiro	Lead role
	The Yin Yang Master 2
	Warriors of Heaven and Earth	Emissary Lai Xi	Chinese film
2005	Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles	Kenichi Takada (voice)	Chinese film
2006	Aegis
2007	Hero	Akihiko Takita
	Dororo	Kagemitsu Daigo
2008	The Magic Hour	Tōru Iawata		[2]
	Samurai Gangsters	Shimizu no Jirochō	Lead role
2009	Amalfi: Rewards of the Goddess	Hiroshi Kataoka (voice)
2010	Railways	Hajime Tsutsui	Lead role
2011	A Ghost of a Chance	Tōru Osano		[3]
	The Warring States	King of Qi	Chinese film
	Wild 7
2012	The Wings of the Kirin	Takeaki Aoyagi
	Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer	Tokugawa Mitsukuni
2014	Zakurozaka no Adauchi	Kingo Shimura	Lead role
2015	Again	Haruhiko	Lead role
2016	Good Morning Show	Shingo Sumita	Lead role
	Ken san	Narrator	Documentary film
	Kōfuku no Alibi		Lead role
2017	Flower and Sword	Oda Nobunaga
	Honnōji Hotel	Narrator
2018	We Make Antiques!	Norio Koike	Lead role	[4]
2019	Hit me Anyone One More Time	Prime Minister Keisuke Kuroda	Lead role	[5]
	Aircraft Carrier Ibuki	Keiichi Nakano		[6]
2020	We Make Antiques! Kyoto Rendezvous	Norio Koike	Lead role	[4]
2022	Dreaming of the Meridian Arc	Ikemoto / Takahashi Kageyasu	Lead role	[7]
2023	We Make Antiques! Osaka Dreams	Norio Koike	Lead role	[4]
2024	Silence of the Sea	Suiken		[8]
	Samurai Detective Onihei: Blood for Blood	Kyōgoku Takahisa		[9]
2025	Yukikaze	Seiichi Itō		[10]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1983–1997	Apples and Oranges	Yoshio Nakategawa	Lead role; 4 seasons	[11]
1988	Takeda Shingen	Takeda Shingen	Lead role, Taiga drama	[12]
1995	Hachidai Shōgun Yoshimune	Tokugawa Muneharu	Taiga drama	[13]
2001	Someday Like Storm
2003	Musashi	Yagyū Munenori	Taiga drama	[12]
2005	Yoshitsune	Minamoto no Yoritomo	Taiga drama	[14]
2007	Barefoot Gen	Daikichi Nakaoka	Lead role; miniseries
2009	Smile	Kazuma Ito
2010	Japanese Americans	Chokichi Hiramatsu
2012	Priceless	Kengo Moai
	Taira no Kiyomori	Taira no Tadamori	Taiga drama	[15]
2012–2025	Second to Last Love	Wahei Nagakura	Lead role; 3 seasons	[16]
2016	Kinpika	Kenta Sakaguchi	Lead role
2018	Musume no Kekkon	Takahiko Kunieda	Lead role; TV movie
2021	The Grand Family	Daisuke Manpyo	Lead role	[17]
2023	Taiga Drama ga Umareta Hi	Narushima	TV movie	[18]

Video games

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2020	Yakuza: Like a Dragon	Masumi Arakawa		[19]
2024	Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth	Masumi Arakawa		[19]

Japanese dubbing

Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
Despicable Me 2	Eduardo "El Macho" Pérez		[20]

Honours

• Medal with Purple Ribbon (2020)^[21]