After graduation from Nagasaki Prefectural High School of Technology in 1974, he worked at the Chiyoda municipal ward office, or kuyakusho, in Tokyo, from which he later took his stage name.

[1] In 1983, he landed the role of Oda Nobunaga in the year-long NHK drama Tokugawa Ieyasu and was catapulted to fame.

[1] In 1988, he was given a special award for work in cinema by the Japanese Minister of Education, Science, Sports and Culture and continued to appear in films and in a number of TV shows through the '90s.

The Eel, directed by Shohei Imamura, in which he played the eel-loving lead, won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival.

Ballroom groups and dance schools multiplied in the country after the film's release, and people who previously would never admit to taking lessons announced that they did with pride.

He collaborated with horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa in Cure,[1] License to Live,[7] Seance, Charisma,[1] Pulse,[8] Doppelganger,[9] Retribution,[10] and Tokyo Sonata.

For his performance in Perfect Days, directed by Wim Wenders, Yakusho won best actor at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.