Among his best-known roles are in Hirokazu Kore-eda's Maboroshi no Hikari (1995) and Distance (2001), Hyozo Tashiro in Gohatto (1999), Kakihara in Ichi the Killer (2001), Hattori Genosuke in Zatoichi (2003), Kenji in Last Life in the Universe (also 2003), and Temujin in Mongol (2007).

He has also appeared in Hollywood films, notably as Hogun in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Lord Kira Yoshinaka in 47 Ronin (2013),[1] the Interpreter in Silence (2016), Rear Admiral Tamon Yamaguchi in Midway (2019), and Raiden in Mortal Kombat (2021), based on the fighting video game of the same name.

Asano has worked with some of the most prominent and acclaimed directors in Japanese cinema, including Hirokazu Kore-eda, Takeshi Kitano, Nagisa Ōshima, Takashi Miike, Nobuhiko Obayashi and Kiyoshi Kurosawa, along with international directors like Martin Scorsese, Kenneth Branagh, Wong Kar-wai, Roland Emmerich, Pen-ek Ratanaruang and Sergei Bodrov.

Asano's 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 Kore-eda'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.

[9] In September 2021, Asano was announced as part of the cast of the FX limited series Shōgun, adapted from the James Clavell novel.

[16] In August 2022, Asano announced through his Twitter and Instagram accounts that he had married model and actress Kurumi Nakata who is eighteen years younger than him (b.