Junichi Okada
Junichi Okada | |
|---|---|
岡田 准一 | |
| Born |
November 18, 1980
Hirakata, Osaka, Japan
|
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1995–present |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 1 |
| Musical career | |
| Genres | |
| Labels | Avex Trax |
| Formerly of | V6 |
Junichi Okada (岡田 准一, Okada Jun'ichi, born November 18, 1980) is an actor, fight choreographer and a former member of Japanese boy band V6.
Career
Music career
In the summer of 1995, Okada participated in Johnny's Pre-School, part of the NTV program Tensai, Takeshi no Genki ga Deru Terebi (天才・たけしの元気が出るテレビ!!). He passed the audition and joined Johnny & Associates at the age of 14. After being in Johnny's for only a short period of three months, he made his debut as the youngest member of the idol group V6. Unlike the rest of the members in the group, he did not have much experience as Johnny's Jr. The first time that he had been on a music program was only after the debut of V6. Their debut song was "Music For the People".
Okada can play the guitar, as well as the piano. His mother is a piano teacher. His voice is in the middle range, and hence his solos usually include slower ballads. Later in his career as member of V6, he was given longer solo songs, such as "Way of Life". He also revealed that during V6's 2008 concert Vibes, he was directing most of the lightning, staging, and costumes.
Acting career
Dramas
Besides being known as a member of V6, Okada is an accomplished actor in movies and dramas, playing the lead in many of them. In a Shounen Club Premium interview on May 7, 2009, he revealed that it was the Japanese drama Kisarazu Cat's Eye that caught the attention of viewers and directors, and made them aware of his acting ability. The success of the drama led to the making of two movie sequels, Kisarazu Cat's Eye: Nihon Series and Kisarazu Cat's Eye: World Series. His other notable dramas include Tiger & Dragon, a comedy drama about rakugo, a form of Japanese comedy acted only by one person telling that story. and SP (also known as Security Police), an action suspense drama about a team of security police bodyguards in charge of protecting important people in the government. With Shinichi Tsutsumi as his co-star, the drama drew in overall ratings of 15.35% despite its Saturday 11:00 p.m. (JST) time slot; its special episode broadcast in 2008 also received a viewership rating of 21.5%.
After several years of "drama hiatus", Okada played the main character, Kuroda Kanbei, in the January 2014 NHK historical drama, Gunshi Kanbei (軍師官兵衛). Kanbei was a man of ambition who served as the chief strategist under Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the Sengoku period.
Movies
He made a big leap in his movie career with Tokyo Tower in 2005. In the movie he portrayed a young college student torn between his love for a lady twenty years his senior and the views society has on these kinds of relationship. After that came Hana, directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. In the movie, Okada portrayed Sōza, a samurai uninterested in killing his enemy and focused on what he could do today to be a better person instead. The movie earned him a nomination for the Blue Ribbon Awards, but he declined this nomination. Nevertheless, he was awarded the Ishihara Yujiro New Actor Award at Nikkan Sports Film Award for his role in Hana. Later, he was involved in movies such as Flowers in the Shadows, portraying a young man in debt because of pachinko, and Otonari (おとなり), an unconventional love story between two neighbors who have never met each other and only follow the other person's life through the sounds they hear from the other side of the wall.
In 2012, Okada played the role of Shibukawa Shunkai, an astronomer who invented the Jōkyō calendar used for many decades, in the movie Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer, directed by Yōjirō Takita. The director has previously won an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Departures, in 2009. Later that year, it was announced that Okada would appear in another film set for a spring 2013 release, The Eternal Zero, directed by Takashi Yamazaki. The film follows the journey of a kamikaze pilot named Kyuzo Miyabe, a man described as a coward who volunteered to die for his country.
Personal life
Okada is known for being reserved. He does not meet with many people within the agency. In an interview on Shounen Club Premium, Okada said that when he was little, whenever his name was called up to read something in class, he would feel like vomiting and purposely avoided school on those days. Within V6, he was also the most quiet person. He enjoys carpentry and has carved wooden bears for children.
He married actress Aoi Miyazaki on 23 December 2017. In May 2018, it was announced that he and his wife were expecting their first child. He is the fourth member of V6 to be a father. It was announced via fax message that their son was born in October 2018.
During the Johnny's press conference celebrated October 2, 2023, comments were said about his leaving the office in November. Office vice-president and former V6 co-member Yoshihiko Inohara asked for discretion, and to wait for an official comment by the person himself. The news was confirmed the same day. Okada would be leaving Johnny's on November 30.
Martial arts practitioner
In 2010, Okada had reported in a press conference that he is certified to teach Jeet Kune Do and Kali in Japan, the latter was used by him as his main martial art when the SP series was filmed. Trained under USA Shooto instructor Yorinaga Nakamura.
While filming for The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill, Okada trained for a fight scene using jiu-jitsu. He continued training under jiu-jitsu artist Tomoyuki Hashimoto (CARPE DIEM), getting a brown belt in 2022. Okada participated for the first time in a public match in the International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation (IBJJF) World Master 2023 in Las Vegas, USA, on 31 August 2023, in the Master 3 Brown Belt Light Featherweight Division, winning his first round, but losing on the quarterfinals against Andrew Steve Slackta.
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Director | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2003 | Cosmic Rescue | Azuma Sawada | Shinsuke Sato | Lead role | |
| Kisarazu Cats Eye: Nihon Series | Kōhei Tabuchi (Bussan) | Fuminori Kaneko | Lead role | ||
| Hard Luck Hero | Takashi Asai | Sabu | Lead role | ||
| 2005 | Tokyo Tower | Toru Kojima | Takashi Minamoto | Lead role | |
| Fly, Daddy, Fly | Soon-Shin Park | Izuru Narushima | Lead role | ||
| Hold Up Down | Koichi Sawamura | Sabu | Lead role | ||
| 2006 | Hana | Sōzaemon Aoki (Sōza) | Hirokazu Kore-eda | Lead role | |
| Kisarazu Cats Eye: World Series | Kōhei Tabuchi (Bussan) | Fuminori Kaneko | Lead role | ||
| Tales from Earthsea | Prince Arren (voice) | Gorō Miyazaki | Lead role | ||
| 2008 | Flowers in the Shadows | Shin'ya | Yuichiro Hirakawa | Lead role | |
| 2009 | Romantic Prelude | Satoshi Nojima | Naoto Kumazawa | Lead role | |
| 2010 | SP: The Motion Picture | Kaoru Inoue | Takafumi Hatano | Lead role | |
| 2011 | SP: The Motion Picture II | Kaoru Inoue | Takafumi Hatano | Lead role | |
| From Up on Poppy Hill | Shun Kazama (voice) | Gorō Miyazaki | Lead role | ||
| 2012 | Tenchi: The Samurai Astronomer | Shibukawa Shunkai (Santetsu Yasui) | Yōjirō Takita | Lead role | |
| 2013 | Library Wars | Atsushi Dōjō | Shinsuke Sato | Lead role | |
| The Eternal Zero | Kyūzō Miyabe | Takashi Yamazaki | Lead role | ||
| 2014 | A Samurai Chronicle | Shōzaburō Dan'no | Takashi Koizumi | Lead role | |
| 2015 | Library Wars: The Last Mission | Atsushi Dōjō | Shinsuke Sato | Lead role | |
| 2016 | Everest: The Summit of the Gods | Makoto Fukamachi | Hideyuki Hirayama | Lead role | |
| Fueled: The Man They Called Pirate | Tetsuzō Kunioka | Takashi Yamazaki | Lead role | ||
| 2017 | Reminiscence | Detective Atsushi Shikata | Yasuo Furuhata | Lead role | |
| Sekigahara | Ishida Mitsunari | Masato Harada | Lead role | ||
| 2018 | Samurai's Promise | Shinbei Uryū | Daisaku Kimura | Lead role | |
| It Comes | Nozaki | Tetsuya Nakashima | Lead role | ||
| 2019 | The Fable | Akira Satō | Kan Eguchi | Lead role | |
| 2021 | The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill | Akira Satō | Kan Eguchi | Lead role | |
| Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai | Hijikata Toshizō | Masato Harada | Lead role | ||
| 2022 | Hell Dogs | Shōgo Kanetaka | Masato Harada | Lead role | |
| A Life of Climber | Narrator | Hiroaki Takeishi | Documentary | ||
| 2023 | Hard Days | Kudō | Michihito Fujii | Lead role |
TV dramas
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | V no Honoo | Junichi Okada | ||
| 1997 | D×D | Toranosuke Kihara | ||
| 1998 | Pu-Pu-Pu Jump | Kazuya Omine | Lead role | |
| 1999 | Shin Oretachi no Tabi | Shinroku Kumazawa | ||
| Dear Friend | Yuuji Yamamuro | TV movie | ||
| 2000 | Mona Lisa no Hohoemi | Takuro Okajima | ||
| Oyaji | Tadashi Kanzaki | |||
| 2001 | Chūshingura 1/47 | Chikara Oishi | TV movie | |
| Hanran no Voyage | Kunpei Sakaue | |||
| 2002 | Love Quotient | Ryuji | ||
| Kisarazu Cat's Eye | Kōhei Tabuchi (Bussan) | Lead role | ||
| 2003 | The Eldest Boy and His Three Elder Sisters | Ichiro Kashiwakura | ||
| 2005 | Taika no Kaishin | Nakatomi no Kamatari | Lead role, miniseries | |
| Fuyu no Undokai | Kikuo Kitazawa | Lead role, TV movie | ||
| Tiger & Dragon | Ryuji Yanaka (Kotatsu) | |||
| 2006 | Niji wo Kakeru Ōhi | Yi Un | Miniseries | |
| 2007 | SP | Kaoru Inoue | Lead role | |
| 2014 | Gunshi Kanbei | Kuroda Kanbei | Lead role; Taiga drama | |
| 2015 | Library Wars: Book of Memories | Atsushi Dōjō | Lead role, TV movie | |
| 2019 | The Great White Tower | Gorō Zaizen | Lead role, miniseries | |
| 2023 | What Will You Do, Ieyasu? | Oda Nobunaga | Taiga drama |
Television animation
| Year | Title | Role | Network | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Crayon Shin-chan | Gorō Zaizen | TV Asahi | Episode 997 |
Other television
| Year | Title | Network | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012–present | The Profiler | NHK BS-P | As host | |
| 2013 | 64th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen | NHK | As a judge |
Japanese dub
| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | Thunderbirds | Alan Tracy |
Awards and nominations
| Year | Award ceremony | Category | Nominated work(s) | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 32nd Television Drama Academy Awards (ja) | Best Actor | Kisarazu Cat's Eye | Nominated |
| 2005 | 9th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix | Best Supporting Actor | Tiger & Dragon | Won |
| 2006 | 19th Nikkan Sports Film Awards | Ishihara Yujiro New Actor Award | Hana Yori mo Naho, Kisarazu Cat's Eye: World Series | Won |
| 2008 | 56th Television Drama Academy Awards | Best Actor | SP | Won |
| 2014 | 27th Nikkan Sports Film Awards | Best Actor | The Eternal Zero, A Samurai Chronicle | Won |
| 39th Hochi Film Awards | Best Actor | The Eternal Zero | Won | |
| 2015 | 57th Blue Ribbon Awards | Best Actor | A Samurai Chronicle | Nominated |
| 38th Japan Academy Film Prize | Best Actor | The Eternal Zero | Won | |
| Best Supporting Actor | A Samurai Chronicle | Won | ||
| 83rd Television Drama Academy Awards | Best Actor | Gunshi Kanbei | Won | |
| 2017 | 40th Japan Academy Film Prize | Best Actor | Fueled: The Man They Called Pirate | Nominated |
| 2018 | 60th Blue Ribbon Awards | Best Actor | Reminiscence, Sekigahara | Nominated |
| 27th Tokyo Sports Film Awards | Best Actor | Sekigahara | Nominated | |
| 41st Japan Academy Film Prize | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
| 43rd Hochi Film Awards | Best Actor | Samurai's Promise | Nominated | |
| 2019 | 73rd Mainichi Film Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | |
| 42nd Japan Academy Film Prize | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
| 2021 | 34th Nikkan Sports Film Awards | Best Actor |
Baragaki: Unbroken Samurai, The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn't Kill |
Nominated |
| 46th Hochi Film Awards | Best Actor | Nominated | ||
| 2022 | 64th Blue Ribbon Awards | Best Actor | Won | |
| 47th Hochi Film Awards | Best Actor | Hell Dogs | Nominated |