is a Japanese actor.

Career

Graduating from

Meiji Gakuin University is a Christian university in Tokyo and Yokohama that was established in 1863. The Reverend Dr. James Curtis Hepburn was one of its founders and served as the first president. The novelist and poet Shimazaki Toson graduated from this colleg ...

, Yajima debuted as an actor in 1981. A frequent player in the films of

Masato Harada is a Japanese film director, film critic, and sometimes an actor; he is best known to foreign audiences as Omura in ''The Last Samurai'' and as Mr Mita in ''Fearless''. In both his acting roles he portrayed the villain who wants Japan to westerni ...

, Yajima often plays

yakuza , also known as , are members of transnational organized crime syndicates originating in Japan. The Japanese police and media, by request of the police, call them , while the ''yakuza'' call themselves . The English equivalent for the term ...

and other bad guys, but can also do comic relief. He has appeared in over 200 TV dramas and 70 films.

Filmography

Film

Television

References

External links

* 1956 births Living people Male actors from Gifu Prefecture Meiji Gakuin University alumni {{Japan-actor-stub