[1] He was noted for his roles in The Crimson Kimono (1959), Walk Like a Dragon (1960), Flower Drum Song (1961), Bridge to the Sun (1961), Midway (1976), Die Hard (1988), and Mulan (1998).

Born in the Territory of Hawaii in 1929 as a sansei, a third-generation Japanese-American,[5] Shigeta was a 1947 graduate of President Theodore Roosevelt High School, and studied drama at New York University.

[13] En route to Korea, the ceasefire led Shigeta to Japan, where he was discharged from the Marines and hired by the theatrical division of Toho Studios.

[15] He became a success in all media aspects of his day –radio, television, stage, supper clubs, movies, recordings– to such an extent that he became widely known as "The Frank Sinatra of Japan".

[16] In 1958, the Nichigeki Theatre in Tokyo exported their extravaganza Cherry Blossom Show to Australia with Shigeta as the male lead, opposite Fubuki Koshiji.

The 1961 romantic comedy Cry for Happy had Shigeta co-starring with Glenn Ford, Donald O'Connor and Miyoshi Umeki in a tale about Korean War era United States Navy photographers in Japan.

[23] In 1961, Shigeta was cast as Wang Ta, a role originated by Ed Kenney on Broadway,[24] in the Academy Award-nominated[25] movie version of Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song with Nancy Kwan and Miyoshi Umeki playing the love interests.

[27] A rarity for its era, the movie told the true story of a racially mixed marriage set against the background of the war between the United States and Japan.

In 1965, Shigeta worked with Raymond Burr in the Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Wrongful Writ", cast as lawyer Ward Toyama who finds himself as the defendant.

James Shigeta shared the 1960 Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Male Newcomer with actors George Hamilton, Troy Donahue and Barry Coe.

[34][35] In 2005, Shigeta received a "Visionary Award" from the Asian-American theatre organization, East West Players, at their annual anniversary gala in Los Angeles.