
Kimiko Yo
Acting
Biography
Kimiko Yo was born in Yokohama, a city just south of Tokyo to a Japanese mother and Taiwanese father on the 12th of May 1956. Her cousin was actress Bunjaku Han. She became active in front of the camera in 1987 and has been a feature of Japanese television and cinema ever since. She had begun acting on the theatre stage in 1976. Audiences may mostly know her for her supporting role in Shin Gojira, as a sympathetic colleague in the 2008 films Departures, which won an Oscar, and kind wife and waitress in Ramen Girl, but she has almost 200 credits to her name. These include an abnormal neighbour in The Drugstore girl and serene presence in Café Lumière where she was directed by a Taiwanese director in Japan. Dear Doctor (2009) propelled her name forward in Japan and was an award winner. She has several Japan Academy prizes to her name. Like most celebrities she pushes products and has done commercials for telephone companies, shampoos and cosmetics manufacturers. Yo is married to a man who at the time was a NHK employee in 2006 and is managed by the Alpha Agency.
Known For

Follows the rise of Tooru Muranishi, one of Japan's most notorious directors of adult video. Adapted from a biography of the man, this series depicts the character, his art, vision and his interactions with the approving and disapproving folk around him.
The Naked Director

A young man who showed little promise while a high school student becomes a master detective, just like his grandfather.
The Files of the Young Kindaichi

The 64th NHK Asadora Renzoku Drama is Churasan, a story of a young woman, Kohagura Eri, who was born in Kohamajima Island, Okinawa on May 15, 1972, the day when Okinawa was returned to Japan from the U.S. Eleven years later, Kamimura Shizuko and her two sons, Kazuya and Fumiya, from Tokyo come to stay as the guests of a small inn run by Eri’s family. Eri’s fun-loving, yet eccentric family welcomes them warmly. However, Eri is shocked to hear one of the sons, Kazuya is terminally ill and Shizuko and her sons came to Okinawa to spend his last moment together in beautiful nature. Fumiya, Kazuya’s younger brother, and Eri promise to marry each other someday. However after Kazuya’s death, Fumiya and his mother leave the island to go back to Tokyo. Years later, they are reunited, Eri as a nurse and Fumiya, a doctor, working at the same hospital in Tokyo.
Churasan

Suzume is a girl born to a family running a small restaurant in Gifu Prefecture. She loses her hearing in one ear from a disease. Encouraged by her loving parents and childhood friend, she lives through an eventful life with a tenacious spirit.
Half Blue Sky

In an otherwise mundane diner open from midnight to 7 a.m., there is no menu – but the chef cooks anything his customers want. Each episode is about different a different customer, as they find simple yet profound connections with one another based on their shared love of a particular dish.
Midnight Diner: Tokyo Stories

Kaoru Mitazono (Masahiro Matsuoka) is a talented housekeeper with an usual secret. Kaoru is actually a guy! Besides cooking, cleaning and babysitting Kaoru Mitazono has the unusual habit of discovering secrets held within the family of her employers.
Mr. Housekeeper, Mitazono

The 47th NHK Taiga Drama is a life story of Princess Atsu, who was born in Kagoshima Prefecture, then called Satsuma, and became the wife of Tokugawa Iesada, the 13th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate. She accedes to the highest rank in Ooku, the inner palace of the Edo castle where women related to the reigning shogun resided. Iesada dies soon after their marriage and Atsuhime assumes the name Tenshoin at the age of 23. She exerts herself for the Tokugawa clan and for the nation during the upheaval in the Meiji Restoration, headed by those from Satsuma.
Atsuhime

The mystery of how Kazama Kimichika became so ruthless and unmatched will be revealed. Kyojo Zero depicts the time before he was assigned to the police academy, when he was working as an instructor in charge of training new detectives...
Kazama Kimichika: Kyojo Zero

When a massive, gilled monster emerges from the deep and tears through the city, the government scrambles to save its citizens. A rag-tag team of volunteers cuts through a web of red tape to uncover the monster's weakness and its mysterious ties to a foreign superpower. But time is not on their side - the greatest catastrophe to ever befall the world is about to evolve right before their very eyes.
Shin Godzilla

As Japan's most famous fortune teller, Kazuko Hosoki ruled TV and bestseller lists, but who was she behind rumors of spiritual scams and underworld ties?
Straight to Hell

A 10-part omnibus drama by 10 different scriptwriters on the theme of fathers and their sons and daughters.
Back of Father

Kindaichi Hajime is a high school student and a private detective with an IQ of 180. He solves murder cases that are riddled with difficult clues. Kindaichi Hajime works with his childhood friend Nanase Miyuki and Kenmochi Isamu. Kenmochi Isamu is now the chief inspector of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.
The Files of Young Kindaichi

Freelance programmer Sakagami is paralyzed in the lower half of his body and confined to a wheelchair. He sets up a company called dele.LIFE in partnership with a law firm established by his late father. At the request of clients, Sakagami works together with a freelance jack-of-all-trades Mashiba to delete all unfavorable digital records of their clients left in their computers and smartphones after they die. They are not supposed to see inside the files but when they feel something strange in the client’s death, they cannot help getting involved.
dele

Abunai Deka, often shortened to AbuDeka, is Japanese television drama aired by Nippon Television between 1986 and 1987. Starring Hiroshi Tachi and Kyohei Shibata, the series became very popular and spawned films, spin-offs series, and books. The series follows a pair of detectives, Takayama and Oshita, from the Naka-ku branch of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police.
Dangerous Detective

What happens with two children commit two different muders in order to protect each other? Does salvation exist for them? In order to walk beneath the sun once more, Ryouji and Yukiho find themselves in a twisted web from which neither can escape without abandoning the other. Having no one but each other, this drama follows the events the follow that fateful day… 14 years ago.
Into the White Night

A tough, desperate kid becomes a sumo wrestler, captivating fans with his cocky attitude — and upsetting an industry steeped in tradition.
Sanctuary

Two old friends go into business together – one's a master communicator, and the other's a great engineer. Their goal? To make a trillion dollars.
Trillion Game

Hidenori is a Japanese-Korean man with no sense of belonging, destination or education. He drifts around and meanders through life until a death reminds him of his heritage and so begins a journey to South Korea.
Worst by Chance

A gripping medical drama centered around a hospital in Kabukicho. Featuring a diverse cast of characters, including those from male host bars and street kids many with complicated backgrounds.
Shinjuku Field Hospital

Sonoko Nanakura is a straight A student, daughter of a doctor. She meets Wataru Okochi, a tall orphan guy working in a factory, who attends school at night. Her parents warn her not to get involved, and a smart boy Yusuke Hasebe also seems interested in her.