The Hollywood Walk of Fame, Universal Studios, and the famed Hollywood Sign are just a few attractions. Here are a few Japanese actresses who have made it big in Hollywood.
1. Miyoshi Umeki
Umeki is the only Japanese actress to receive an Academy Award. She was nominated for another Golden Globe for her work in the television series The Courtship of Eddie's Father, although she would not win this time. These roles and nominations established a high bar for Japanese females in the future, and it remains unsurpassed now.
2. Kaori Momoi
She is one of Japan's most well-known actresses, with many Japanese acting accolades but a few overseas credentials. She was nominated for the Japanese Academy Awards twice for Best Actress and once for Best Supporting Actress. Her most recent appearance was as the mother in Memoirs of a Geisha, and before that, she played a supporting character in the World War II film Emperor.
3. Yoko Shimada
In front of the western audience, her first appearance was Lady Toda Buntaro-Mariko in the miniseries, Shogun. She received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Television Drama Series. She went on to have a minor role in an episode of a Chicago story, then minor roles in two films, The Hunted and Crying Freeman, before returning to Japan to work primarily in Japanese movies and television.
4. Rila Fukushima
Yukio, a mutant and ally of Logan, the Wolverine, was played by Fukushima, another Japanese actress who had her first significant part in Wolverine. She has been in front of the camera for clients, including D&G. She also spent time in front of the camera, appearing in music videos by Lenny Kravitz and Ben Taylor, among others.
5. Tao Okamoto
Okamoto made her cinema debut in the 2013 film Wolverine, starring Hugh Jackman, playing his ally.
6. Keiko Kitagawa
Kitagawa is known for the brief role in The Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift and early work in the live-action Sailor Moon television series. She has had several roles in Japanese television series and films since The Fast and the Furious. Her success as an actress in her home country, combined with foreign experience, could land some important international roles in the future.
7. Eriko Hatsune
Hatsune made her international debut in 2012, playing a long-lost love interest in the film Emperor. She has been acting in movies and television shows in her home since 1999, and she is an international actress.
8. Youki Kudoh
In Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train in 1989, she played an important role. She played Russell Crowe's love interest in Heaven's Burning, an Australian film. Memoirs of a Geisha and Rush Hour 3 are the films where he appeared as the supporting characters. In 2009, she reconnected with Jarmusch to work on his film The Limits of Control. Her collaboration with Jarmusch is largely unknown outside of the independent film community, yet it has allowed her to share the screen with him.
9. Rinko Kikuchi
She was the most well-known Japanese actress at the time for her role in the 2006 film Babel, for which she was nominated and won multiple accolades across the world for her depiction of a deaf teenage girl. For years to come, she will be the prominent face of Japanese actors on the international stage to these roles.
10. Koyuki Kato
Even though she made only one international film credit to her name, it's noteworthy. She played with Tom Cruise in The Last Samurai as the wife who murdered Cruise's character. She began her career as a model.
