Masahiko Nishimura

Biography

Nishimura was born on December 12, 1960 in Toyama, Toyama, Japan. While he attended Toyo University to study photography he met Kōki Mitani, a script writer for radio and playwright who aspired to be an actor and who turned his attention to the theatre.

In 1983, Nishimura, Mitani and others including the actors Zen Kajiwara and Kazuyuki Aijima formed the Tokyo Sunshine Boys, a comedy troupe that grew in popularity over the following ten years. They produced the popular play 12 Gentle Japanese, a parody of Reginald Rose's 12 Angry Men. When 12 Gentle Japanese was adapted to film, Nishimura did not form part of the cast.

In the 1990s the success of the Tokyo Sunshine Boys brought Nishimura parts in television dramas, notably a part in Furikaereba Yatsuga Iru and as the flamboyant Shintaro Imaizumi in Kōki Mitani's Furuhata Ninzaburo.

With the release of the Kōki Mitani film adaptation of the play Radio no Jikan in 1997, Nishimura won acclaim for his portrayal of a radio producer—a role for which he won the Best Supporting Actor award from the Japanese Academy Awards as well as a Blue Ribbon Award.

The Tokyo Sunshine Boys disbanded in 1998, but most of its actors, including Nishimura, continued to work in television.

Awards