Yōsuke Naka

Biography

Career

Born in Chiba, Chiba Prefecture, Japan on March 30, 1930, Naka graduated from Chiba Prefectural Chiba First High School.

In 1953, Naka joined the Chiba City Civic Hall. Despite wanting to originally become a writer, he was a somewhat naturally lazy person, so he never even got as far as to think that he'd ever try to write plays, but instead, he ended up in the world of acting. He moved to Tokyo during the Shinkigeki boom and was introduced to several Shinkigeki-style theatre companies by Yotaro Nishizawa, the editor-in-chief of theatre magazine Tragedy and Comedy by Hayakawa Publishing. While he still couldn't decided on which company to join, Naka had heard that the Enza Theater Company had been searching for actors, so he ended up joining without as much as a second thought. After he joined Enza in 1956, he joined the Mirai Gekijō theater company two years later, then the Zokei theater company three years after that, before finally joining the Tōgei theater company, where he ended up spending days on-stage. Though at that period in time, the attitude that society had grown toward theater company actors was harsh, to the point where even renting an apartment became a struggle, and life was incredibly hard.

During this time, Naka would take on performing small roles in dramas such as Dial 110, Crime Reporter, and Seven Detectives, but his income remained stagnant, and he would spend days juggling part-time jobs while resuming his work on-stage. Eventually he began to receive offers to perform dubbing for foreign shows. Although the pay then was only about 70% of the usual rate, the amount of shows was huge, and Naka was finally able to stabilize his livelihood.

While continuing to dub foreign dramas, Naka met a manager who invited him to "give it a serious try", leading him to start appearing in Toei Company television dramas. On Special Mobile Investigation Squad, Naka would play criminal roles. He was approached regarding this when the show switched to a three-unit system: "Hey, Naka, isn't it about time you played a detective instead of a criminal?" He turned down the offer, replying, "It's more interesting to play villains because I can portray so many different types." People told him that he was weird for thinking that, which Naka himself would later reflect on, saying, "Looking back now, it might have been a mistake."

Eventually, as the mainstream of television dramas shifted to two-hour specials and work began to dwindle, Naka asked the president of his agency to if they could let him partake in dubbing the foreign drama Hill Street Blues. While he going on record to say that the long monologues were painful, from that point on, voice acting became his main profession.

After working with G&B Planning, Murakami Office, and Kumazawa Production, he joined Mausu Promotion, his last affiliation.

Death

Naka died on October 20, 2023, at the age of 93. Mausu announced his death that November.

Personality

In tokusatsu productions, Naka often portrayed villainous commanders, most famously Admiral Majin in the Kamen Rider series. He would also often portray villainous roles in period dramas and yakuza bosses in police dramas.

His most famous voice acting role was as Nobita's father Nobisuke Nobi in the Doraemon anime from 1992 to 2005. Naka was cast on short notice, as the previous voice actor, Masayuki Katō, had stepped down due to ongoing health problems. Naka was a personal friend of Katō's and accepted the offer with the intention of "carrying on his friend's legacy".

He stepped down from the role of Nobisuke in March 2005 with the end of the 1979 series, with the role being succeeded by Yasunori Matsumoto for the 2005 reboot.

Successors

After his death, the following individuals have taken over his roles.

Filmography