Asano was born in Yokohama to a Japanese father and a mother of Navajo ancestry. His father, an actors' agent, suggested he take on his first acting role in the TV show Kinpachi Sensei at the age of 16. His film debut was in the 1990 Swimming Upstream (Bataashi Kingyo), though his first major critical success was in Shunji Iwai's Fried Dragon Fish (1993). His first critical success internationally was Hirokazu Koreeda's Maboroshi no Hikari (1995), in which he played a man who inexplicably throws himself in front of a train, widowing his wife and orphaning his infant son. He also worked with Koreeda in the pseudo-documentary Distance in 2001. His best known works internationally are the samurai films Gohatto (1999) and Zatoichi (2003), as well as the critically acclaimed film Akarui Mirai (Bright Future).

He acted in Katsuhito Ishii's 2003 film The Taste of Tea, which premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival. He appeared as the lead actor in Last Life in the Universe (2003) by Thai director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang and starred in a follow-up film by Pen-Ek, Invisible Waves, in 2006. In 2007 he starred as the young Genghis Khan in Sergei Bodrov's Oscar-nominated film Mongol.

The extensive range of Asano's film career is due in part to his decision no longer to appear in television programmes, even though TV work in Japan is generally more lucrative than film acting.[citation needed]

In addition to his acting career, Asano directed commercial TV spots for his wife, Chara. He is a musician; he formed the band MACH-1.67 with director Sogo Ishii in 1996 and, from time to time, plays in the bands Peace Pill and Safari. He is an artist and a model, most notably for Japanese fashion designers Jun Takahashi and Takeo Kikuchi, for whom he filmed a series of commercial spots directed by Wong Kar-wai: one released under the name wkw/tk/1996@7′55″hk.net.

Asano and his father run the actor's agency Anore Inc. which represents Japanese actors like Ryō Kase and Rinko Kikuchi.

Asano met and fell in love with J-Pop idol Chara on the set of Iwai's Picnic (1994). They were married in March 1995 and Chara became pregnant with their first child, Sumire.[citation needed] In 1999, they also had a son. In July 2009, Chara announced on her website that the two would be getting a divorce. She received custody of both their children.

He won the Most Popular Performer award at the 1997 Japanese Academy Awards for Acri and was nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category in 2004 for his performance in Zatôichi. He also received the Upstream Prize for Best Actor at the 2003 Venice Film Festival for his role in Last Life in the Universe.



Ken Ogata (1980) · Masato Furuoya (1981) · Toshiyuki Nagashima (1982) · Ruudo Uzaki (1983) · Yusaku Matsuda (1984) · Takeshi Kaga (1985) · Minori Terada (1986) · Kouichi Iwaki (1987) · Saburou Tokitou (1988) · Hiroyuki Sanada (1989) · Ryo Ishibashi (1990) · Masato Furuoya (1991) · Hidekazu Akai (1992) · Masahiro Motoki (1993) · Hiroyuki Sanada (1994) · Eiji Okuda (1995) · Etsushi Toyokawa (1996) · Kōji Yakusho / Tadanobu Asano (1997) · Yoshio Harada (1998) · Kiichi Nakai / Claude Maki (1999) · Ken Takakura (2000) · Tadanobu Asano (2001) · Yōsuke Kubozuka (2002) · Kyouzou Nagatsuka / Seiichi Tanabe (2003) · Satoshi Tsumabuki (2004) · Kōji Yakusho (2005) · Joe Odagiri (2006) · Teruyuki Kagawa (2007) · Ryō Kase (2008) · Kaoru Kobayashi (2009) · Masato Sakai (2010)