

Ken Watanabe
Ken Watanabe (born October 21, 1959) is a Japanese stage, film, and television actor. To English-speaking audiences he is known for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto Moritsugu in The Last Samurai, for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. Among other awards, he has won the Japan Academy Prize for Best Actor twice, in 2007 for Memories of Tomorrow and in 2010 for Shizumanu Taiyō. He is also known for his roles in director Christopher Nolan's Hollywood blockbusters Batman Begins and Inception.
Where to watch Ken Watanabe’s work in
Japan
Top 30 by popularity. Click any title to see exactly which OTT carries it in Japan.

Inception
2010

Alice in Borderland
2020

Batman Begins
2005

Tokyo Vice
2022

Transformers: Age of Extinction
2014

Pokémon Detective Pikachu
2019

Godzilla: King of the Monsters
2019

The Last Samurai
2003

Transformers: The Last Knight
2017

Godzilla
2014

Isle of Dogs
2018

The Creator
2023

Segodon
2018

Letters from Iwo Jima
2006

The Secret Lives of Kyoto Folk
2015

Unbound
2025

Memoirs of a Geisha
2005

Masamune Shogun
1987

Ikebukuro West Gate Park
2000

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
2009

Kokuho
2025

The Sea of Trees
2016

Back of Father
2014

TRUE COLORS
2025

Hanekonma
1986

NHK WORLD PRIME
2017

Shanghai
2010

7 Guardians of the Tomb
2018

The Final Piece
2025

Fukushima 50
2020