Shoji Kokami
Shoji Kokami is a Japanese playwright, director, actor, and filmmaker.Career
Born in Niihama, Ehime, Kōkami was attending Waseda University when he founded the theatrical company Daisanbutai. Becoming "one of the prime movers in the 1980s small-scale youth theater movement in Japan", he won the Kunio Kishida Award in 1995 for his play Sunafukin no tegami. Earning a fellowship from the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1997, he spent a year in London, and has since presented such plays as Trance on the London stage. The play Halcyon Days, which he wrote about suicide websites in Japan, has also been presented in Great Britain. In 2010 he won the 61st Yomiuri Prize for Drama.
Kōkami has also directed and acted in several films.
Kōkami presents the television show "Cool Japan" which regularly airs on NHK in Japan. Select episodes are broadcast on NHK world for foreign audiences.
