Shoji Kokami
Shoji Kokami (鴻上尚史, Kōkami Shōji, born 2 August 1958) 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 (Third Stage).[1] Becoming "one of the prime movers in the 1980s small-scale youth theater movement in Japan",[2] he won the Kunio Kishida Award in 1995 for his play Sunafukin no tegami.[1] Earning a fellowship from the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 1997, he spent a year in London,[1] and has since presented such plays as Trance on the London stage.[2] The play Halcyon Days, which he wrote about suicide websites in Japan, has also been presented in Great Britain.[3] In 2010 he won the 61st Yomiuri Prize for Drama.[4]
Kōkami has also directed and acted in several films including Renai Gikyoku: Watashi to koi ni ochitekudasai[5].
Kōkami presents the television show "Cool Japan" which regularly airs on NHK in Japan. Select episodes are broadcast on NHK world for foreign audiences.
References
- Kamiyama, Tenshi (15 May 2009). "Jidai no shun to kibun o sukuitoru shōkaku". Doraku. Asahi Shinbun. Archived from the original on 12 October 2011. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- Tanaka, Nobuko (28 June 2007). "Londoners in a Japanese 'Trance'". Japan Times. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- Lukes, Edward (26 August 2011). "Halcyon Days at the Riverside Studios". The London Magazine. Retrieved 7 September 2011.
- "読売文学賞" [Yomiuri Prize for Literature] (in Japanese). Yomiuri Shimbun. Retrieved 30 September 2018.
- "Renai Gikyoku: Watashi to koi ni ochitekudasai". IMDB. Retrieved 14 August 2020.