Takuya Kimura (Japanese: 木村 拓哉, Hepburn: Kimura Takuya; born November 13, 1972) is a Japanese actor, singer, and radio personality. He is regarded as a Japanese icon after achieving success as an actor. He was also a popular member of SMAP, one of the best-selling boy bands in Asia. In the media, he is known as a huge heartthrob in Japan, and a sex symbol, having been voted Japan's sexiest man for 15 years in a row by readers of one magazine.
A 1996 television drama series, Long Vacation, in which he landed his first lead role, became a massive success, creating a phrase called the "Lon-bake phenomenon". He was given the title, "The King of Ratings", as his subsequent television series continued to generate high ratings and each show became a social phenomenon as it aired. Five of his most successful television series, Hero (2001), Beautiful Life (2000), Love Generation (1997), Good Luck!! (2003), and Long Vacation (1996) are ranked in the top ten highest-rated television series in Japanese history. He has received the Best Actor award at the Television Drama Academy Awards 11 times and holds the record for most wins. He also starred in blockbuster films, including Love and Honor (2006), Hero (2007) and Howl's Moving Castle (as a voice actor, 2004).
Kimura is also known for his work in the video games Judgment and Lost Judgment, portraying Takayuki Yagami.
Contents
Career
Music
In 1987, at age 15, Kimura auditioned to enter Johnny & Associates, a talent agency that recruits and trains young boys to become singers and members of boy bands. In Autumn 1987, twenty young boys, including Kimura, were put together into a group called The Skate Boys, which was initially created as backup dancers for a famous boy band, Hikaru Genji. In April 1988, producer Johnny Kitagawa chose six out of the twenty boys to create a new boy band; "SMAP."
The group became one of the most successful boy bands in Asia and are regarded as an iconic group in Japan with 24 top-10 albums and 14 number-one albums. SMAP officially disbanded on December 31, 2016.
In 2020, Kimura released his first solo album, entitled "Go with the Flow". The album, which included songs written for Kimura by well-known bands and artists such as [ALEXANDROS], Superfly, Noriyuki Makihara, and Love Psychedelico, debuted at #1 on the Oricon Albums Chart on the week of its release. A month later, he held a four-day tour in both Tokyo and Osaka entitled "TAKUYA KIMURA Live Tour 2020 Go with the Flow". The concert was released on Blu-Ray and DVD, on July 8, 2020, debuting at #1 as well on the Oricon Charts.
On May 20, 2021, the Weibo Starlight Awards 2020 ceremony was held online. Kimura, alongside his two daughters, Cocomi and Kōki, were awarded alongside Western artists such as Katy Perry, Taylor Swift, and Louis Koo.
A follow-up to his solo album "Go with the Flow" was released on January 19, 2022, entitled "Next Destination". The album features the song entitled "Mojo Drive", a collaboration between Kimura and renowned city-pop artist Tatsuro Yamashita, who wanted to write a song to highlight Kimura's baritone voice after attending his solo concert in February. Yamashita also composed two other tracks, namely "Good Luck, Good Time", and "Morning Dew" for the album. In addition to Yamashita, "Next Destination" also features songs written by Kyōka Suzuki, Sanma Akashiya, Man with a Mission, and Shigesato Itoi.
From February to March 2022, he held an eight-day tour entitled "TAKUYA KIMURA Live Tour 2022 Next Destination" across Hyogo, Hiroshima, Aichi, and Yokohama. The concert was released on Blu-Ray and DVD on August 3, 2022, ranking first in three video categories on the Oricon Weekly Video Rankings.
Acting
In 1988, Kimura made his acting debut in a television series, Abunai Shonen III, along with his band members. After appearing in several television series, he first attracted attention after landing a role in a high-rated television series, The Ordinary People (Asunaro Hakusho), in 1993. The scene where he hugged his co-star Hikari Ishida from behind became popular in Japan and a man hugging a girl from behind was later named "asunaro daki", meaning "asunaro hug". From 1994, men in Japan started copying his fashion and style, as clothes and fashion items became instant hits, the thick, black-rimmed glasses he wore in The Ordinary People, being one of them. The phenomenon was collectively called the "Kimutaku syndrome". He won the Ishihara Yujiro New Artist Award for his performance in Shoot, in which he made his screen debut.
He first landed the lead role in Long Vacation in 1996. The series, which aired every Monday night, saw massive success and was the highest-rated program that year, thus becoming a social phenomenon. Media stated that, "women disappear from the city on Mondays", pointing out the large viewership and how intoxicating the show was for women in Japan. After Kimura played a young pianist, there was a rapid increase of young men who started taking piano lessons. The cultural impact and influences of the show is commonly referred to as the "Lonvaca (ron-bake) phenomenon". This was also a breakthrough for Kimura as an actor and helped him gain recognition and a more broad fan base.
The following year, Kimura starred with Long Vacation costar Takako Matsu in Love Generation as squabbling colleagues who eventually fall in love. The series was a hit, achieving a high rating of 30.8%. In 2000, he starred in the television series Beautiful Life as a hairdresser who falls for a woman in a wheelchair. The series became a massive hit, with the final episode marking above the 40% household share rating and becoming the highest-rated program for that slot (Sunday 9:00pm).
In 2001, Kimura reunited with Takako Matsu in the legal drama Hero as a public prosecutor, which became the all-time highest-rated television series in Japan and the only program in history to have all episodes mark above the 30% household share rating. The success of the series led to a second season and two feature films. Subsequent television series, such as Good Luck!!, Pride and Engine, also generated high-ratings.
In 2004, he played a supporting role in a Cannes-nominated film 2046, and walked the red carpet of Cannes Festival for the first time. Kimura also voiced Howl Pendragon, the titular character of Studio Ghibli's Howl's Moving Castle in 2004. He was the lead actor in Love and Honor (2006). Although he was nominated for numerous prestigious awards for Love and Honor, including the Japan Academy Award, his agency, Johnny & Associates, declined all nominations, though some organizations still announced him as the winner, such as the Tokyo Sports Film Awards, headed by Takeshi Kitano and Cinema Junpo. Earning over 40.3 billion yen, the film became the biggest hit for director Yoji Yamada during his four-decade career, as well as becoming the biggest box-office earner in Shochiku's history. That year, People Magazine named Kimura in its 2006 "Sexiest Man Alive" list in the category "International Males: Hot Around the Globe".
Television
As a member of the boy band SMAP, he used to co-host a weekly variety show SMAPxSMAP for 20 years until the group's dissolution on New Year's Eve 2016. They welcomed a number of international celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Madonna and Lady Gaga as well as Japanese guests.
He has also occasionally made cameo appearances in other shows, such as on Netflix's Jimmy: The True Story of a True Idiot, and has been a guest on numerous variety shows.
Since 2003, Kimura hosts an annual variety show entitled Santaku alongside comedian Sanma Akashiya to commemorate the start of a New Year. However, in 2017, it was broadcast in April due to the official disbanding of the SMAP on New Year's Eve of the previous year.
In 2018 he began hosting an online variety show Kimura-saaan! on the application GYAO! where he does various activities in response to requests from listeners through his radio program Kimura Takuya Flow. The program ended in 2023 however in January 2024, he launched a YouTube channel as a continuation of the web series. In addition to new videos, videos that were previously streamed on GYAO! are also posted on the channel. As of December 2025, Kimura has amassed over 2.09M subscribers on his channel.
Gaming
Early in the development of action game Judgment, the developers at Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio considered using a famous actor to portray the lead Takayuki Yagami.
Series creator and writer Toshihiro Nagoshi was afraid audiences would accuse them of toning down the character due to Kimura's popularity. However, Kimura was open to the team's suggestions and worked with the developers to hone the character. Sega was pleased with Kimura's performance, noting he needed far fewer retakes during recording than they anticipated. Some lines were rewritten to better fit Kimura's delivery, but the writers ensured these changes would not deviate from Yagami's personality. The game's dialogue was recorded in chronological order so players would feel Kimura's voice evolving as Yagami's character develops during the story. Kimura enjoyed his work on the game, and Nagoshi remarked on Kimura's quick response to his messages. In contrast with previous Yakuza titles, the game was not recorded until after the whole scenario was written, which helped Kimura and the other actors.
Kimura reprised his role as Yagami in the sequel to Judgment, entitled Lost Judgment released on September 24, 2021. He announced the sequel alongside Nagoshi during an event titled "Judgment Day." In a video interview promoting the game with Director Nagoshi, Kimura recalled his surprise when actresses on set for various TV dramas and films would discreetly whisper to him that they had played the first Judgment.
Due to Kimura's popularity, Japanese players have often nicknamed the Judgment series Kimutaku ga Gotoku (キムタクが如く; lit. "Like KimuTaku"), referencing the Yakuza series' Japanese title Ryū ga Gotoku (龍が如く; lit. "Like a Dragon").
Personal life
Kimura married singer Shizuka Kudo on December 5, 2000. They have two daughters: Cocomi, born on May 1, 2001; and Mitsuki, born on February 5, 2003.
Other ventures
Product endorsement
As a member of SMAP, Kimura alongside his bandmates were former ambassadors for telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank. He is also well known for being the previous brand ambassador for the Japanese men's grooming brand GATSBY, promoting its iconic Moving Rubber series. Kimura has been the brand ambassador for several other well-known brands, such as Suntory, Levi's, LINE, and Nikon. He is also known for starring in a series of ads for Toyota, alongside Takeshi Kitano and Hugh Jackman. Kimura and Kitano portray Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, while Jackman portrays the sailor Marco Polo. Together with Beyoncé, Kimura served as the brand ambassador for Japanese fashion brand Samantha Thavasa.
As of 2021, Kimura is the current brand ambassador for McDonald's in Japan, and car manufacturer Nissan. In 2021, he partnered with Ray-Ban to produce two lines of special Ray-Ban Aviators and Wayfarers, with his initials engraved by hand.
Kimura was appointed as the ambassador for the HUAWEI WATCH GT 5 Pro in April 2025. This collaboration has since expanded to include the WATCH GT 6 Pro.
Filmography
Discography
Solo albums
Go with the Flow (2020)
Next Destination (2022)
See You There (2024)
Concert tours
Takuya Kimura Live Tour 2020 Go with the Flow (February 2020)
Takuya Kimura Live Tour 2022 Next Destination (February–March 2022)
Takuya Kimura Live Tour 2024 See You There (September–December 2024)
Takuya Kimura Live Tour 2026 Checkpoint (September–November 2026)
Publications
Kai-Ho-Ku (April 24, 2003) ISBN 978-4087803778
Kai-Ho-Ku 2 (September 30, 2011) ISBN 978-4087806137
Kimura Takuya (1996) ISBN 978-4533026430
Percentage (November 11, 2006) ISBN 978-4838717262
Kimura Takuya x Men's Non-No Endless (September 30, 2011) ISBN 978-4087806144
