Nijirō Murakami

Nijiro Murakami (村上 虹郎, Murakami Nijirō; born March 17, 1997) is a Japanese actor and voice actor. He is best known for his role as Kaito in the 2014 romance film Still the Water, which was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. Murakami's role in Last of the Wolves (2021) received critical acclaim, and earned him a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 45th Japan Academy Film Prize. He also gained international recognition for his role as Shuntaro Chishiya in Netflix's survival drama Alice in Borderland.^[1]

Nijiro Murakami
村上 虹郎
Murakami at the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival in 2015
Born	(1997-03-17) March 17, 1997 (age 28) Tokyo, Japan
Occupations	Actor voice actor
Years active	2014–present
Agent	Decade
Parents	Jun Murakami (father) Ua (mother)
Website	Official website

Early life and career

Murakami was born on March 17, 1997, in Tokyo, Japan.^[2] He is the only son of actor Jun Murakami and singer Ua.^[3] His parents divorced when he was nine years old and he grew up with his mother, stepfather, and three younger half-siblings.^[4] While still attending preparatory school, he moved to Okinawa with his family. Murakami also studied for some years in Montreal, Canada.^[5]

He debuted in 2014 portraying the main role of Kaito in the award-winning film Still the Water, for which he received the Best Newcomer Award at the 29th Takasaki Film Festival.^[6] In 2015, he debuted in the television series Tenshi no Naifu.^[7] Later that same year, he starred in the live-action adaptation of the anime series Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day,^[8] as well as the film Wasurenai to Chikatta Boku ga Ita.

As a voice actor, he is best known for voicing Hiro Shishigami in the anime adaptation of the manga series Inuyashiki.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref.
2014	Still the Water	Kaito	Naomi Kawase	Lead role	[2]
	As the Gods Will	Haruhiko Yoshikawa	Takashi Miike		[2]
2015	Forget Me Not	Takashi Hayama	Kei Horie	Lead role	[2]
	Sayonara	Yamashita	Kōji Fukada		[2]
2016	Destruction Babies	Shōta Ashihara	Tetsuya Mariko	Lead role	[2]
	The Firefly Summers	Kimihide	Ryūichi Hiroki		[2]
	Kuroi Bōdō		Ken'ichi Ugana		[2]
2017	Mukoku	Tōru Haneda	Kazuyoshi Kumakiri		[9]
	Second Summer, Never See You Again	Satoshi Shinohara	Kenji Nakanishi	Lead role	[2]
	Miracles of the Namiya General Store	Shota Kobayashi	Ryūichi Hiroki		[2]
	Harunareya	Mikio Nishimura	Bunji Sotoyama	Short film	[2]
	Amy Said	Shunya Hasebe	Taishi Muramoto		[2]
2018	Isle of Dogs	Hiroshi (voice)	Wes Anderson	American film	[2]
	Hanalei Bay	Takahashi	Daishi Matsunaga		[2]
	The Gun	Tōru Nishikawa	Masaharu Take	Lead role	[2]
2019	Chiwawa	Nagai	Ken Ninomiya		[2]
	They Say Nothing Stays the Same	Genzō	Joe Odagiri		[2]
	The Promised Land	Hiro Nogami	Takahisa Zeze		[2]
	I Was a Secret Bitch	Akira Kojima	Kōichirō Miki		[2]
2020	Sasaki in My Mind	Sudo	Takuya Uchiyama		[10]
	Soirée	Shota Iwamatsu	Bunji Sotoyama	Lead role	[2]
2021	Last of the Wolves	Kōta "Chinta" Chikada	Kazuya Shiraishi		[11]
	Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai	Okada Izō	Masato Harada		[12]
	Rurouni Kenshin: The Beginning	Okita Sōji	Keishi Ōtomo		[13]
	Pretenders	Sekai	Izuru Kumasaka		[14]
2022	The Hound of the Baskervilles: Sherlock the Movie	Senri Hasukabe	Hiroshi Nishitani		[15]
2023	Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween Part 1	Kazutora Hanemiya	Tsutomu Hanabusa		[16]
	Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween Part 2	Kazutora Hanemiya	Tsutomu Hanabusa		[16]
	Heartless	Aragaki	Daichi Sugimoto		[17]
	Kyrie	Fūkin	Shunji Iwai		[18]
2024	The Yin Yang Master Zero	Tachibana no Yasuie	Shimako Satō		[19]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Network	Notes	Ref.
2015	Tenshi no Naifu	Jun Maruyama	Wowow		[2]
	Anohana: The Flower We Saw That Day	Jinta "Jintan" Yadomi	Fuji TV	Lead role; TV movie	[2]
2016	Utsukushiki Mittsu no Uso	Shogo Tachiki	Fuji TV	Episode 2	[2]
	Shibuya Rei-chōme	Ogito	Fuji TV, FOD		[2]
	Botanical Life of Verandar 3	Keni'ichi Hiiragi	NHK BS-P	Episode 4	[2]
	Brass Dreams	Hiroto Aoshima	TBS		[2]
	Cold Case: Shinjitsu no Tobira	Ryo Doguchi	Wowow	Episode 5	[2]
2017	Dead Stock	Riku Tsuneta	TV Tokyo	Lead role	[2]
	Inuyashiki	Hiro Shishigami	Fuji TV	Animation	[2]
2018	The Black Company	Ryuichi Kurata	Fuji TV Two		[2]
	In This Corner of the World	Tetsu Mizuhara	TBS		[2]
2019	Les Misérables: Owari na Kitabiji	Takumi Watanabe	Fuji TV	TV movie	[2]
2020	MIU 404	Yoshitaka Kosaka	TBS	Episode 6	[2]
2020–2022	Alice in Borderland	Shuntaro Chishiya	Netflix	2 seasons	[2]
2021	Iki wo Hisomete	Shinpei Miyashita	Hulu	Episode 3	[20]
2021–22	Come Come Everybody	Isamu Kijima	NHK	Asadora	[21]
2022	10 Count to the Future	Momosuke Saijō	TV Asahi		[22]
	The Forbidden Magic	Shingo Koshiba	Fuji TV	TV movie	[23]

Awards and nominations

Name of the award ceremony, year presented, category, nominee(s) of the award, and the result of the nomination

Award	Year	Category	Nominated Work(s)	Result	Ref.
Japan Academy Film Prize	2018	Best Supporting Actor	Mukoku	Nominated	[24]
	2022		Last of the Wolves	Nominated	[25]
Kinema Junpo Awards	2017	Best New Actor	Destruction Babies	Won	[26]
Mainichi Film Awards	2022	Best Supporting Actor	Last of the Wolves	Nominated	[27]
Tama Film Awards	2016	Best New Actor	Destruction Babies, Sayonara, The Firefly Summers	Won	[28]
		Special Award (as an ensemble)	Destruction Babies	Won
Takasaki Film Festival	2015	Best New Actor	Still the Water	Won	[29]
Tokyo International Film Festival	2018	Gemstone Award	The Gun	Won	[30]
Yokohama Film Festival	2017	Best Newcomer	Destruction Babies	Won	[26]