WChikamatsu Monzaemon was a Japanese dramatist of jōruri, the form of puppet theater that later came to be known as bunraku, and the live-actor drama, kabuki. The Encyclopædia Britannica has written that he is "widely regarded as the greatest Japanese dramatist". His most famous plays deal with double-suicides of honor bound lovers. Of his puppet plays, around 70 are jidaimono (時代物) and 24 are sewamono (世話物). The domestic plays are today considered the core of his artistic achievement, particularly works such as The Courier for Hell (1711) and The Love Suicides at Amijima (1721). His histories are viewed less positively, though The Battles of Coxinga (1715) remains praised.
WFukuchi Gen'ichirō was a Japanese critic and author, also known under the pseudonym Fukuchi Ōchi .
WJoseph Heco was the first Japanese person to be naturalized as a United States citizen and the first to publish a Japanese language newspaper.
WThe Reason I Jump: One Boy's Voice from the Silence of Autism is a biography attributed to Naoki Higashida, a nonverbal autistic person from Japan. It was first published in Japan in 2007. The English translation, by Keiko Yoshida and her husband, English author David Mitchell, was published in 2013.
WChōgorō Kaionji was the pen-name of Tōsaku Suetomi , a Japanese author. Noted for his historical novels, he was active during the Shōwa period of Japan.
WRyūki Kajita , known professionally as Mafia Kajita , is a Japanese writer, radio personality, actor, and voice actor. Kajita is a writer and radio personality for the Japanese gaming news website 4gamer.
WAkira Kurosawa was a Japanese filmmaker and painter who directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential film-makers in the history of cinema.
WNitobe Inazō was a Japanese author, educator, agricultural economist, diplomat, politician, and Christian during the pre-World War II period.
WSanyutei Encho I April 1, 1839 – August 11, 1900 was a Japanese author and rakugo performer of the late Edo and early Meiji eras. Notable works include Japanese horror ("kaidan") classics: Kaidan botan dōrō (based on Botan Dōrō , and Shincho Kasane ga Fuchi.
WYasuhiro Sugihara , better known by his stage name Sugizo, is a Japanese musician, singer-songwriter, composer and record producer. He is the lead guitarist and violinist of the rock band Luna Sea since 1989.
WToru Takahashi is a Japanese computer network researcher and businessman. He is credited with contributing to the spread of the Internet into Japan and the rest of Asia in the 1990s and was a pivotal figure in the early commercial development of the Internet. For this reason, he is often called the "Father of the Internet" in Japan.
WItsuo Tsuda was a Japanese philosopher and a practitioner and teacher of aikido and Seitai.