After graduating from high school in 1978, Watanabe moved to Tokyo to pursue his career as an actor. He soon began acting with the Tokyo-based theater troupe, Madoka. While with the group he was chosen by famous Japanese director Yukio Ninagawa to appear in the lead role of a hero in his play Shimodani Mannencho Monogatari. The role attracted critical and popular notice.
In 1982 Watanabe made his debut into television with the show Michinaru Hanran (Unknown Rebellion). In 1987 he made his first career breakthrough and became a household name when he played the role of a samurai leader hero in the Japanese national television drama Dokuganryu Masamune (One Eyed dragon, Masamune).
In 1989 while filming director Haruki Kadokawa’s war drama Ten to Chi to (Heaven and Earth) in Calgary, Alberta, Watanabe suddenly collapsed. He was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia and continued acting for the movie while undergoing chemotherapy treatments. He suffered a relapse in 1994.
Due to his illness, he took on very few acting roles over the next few years. When his health improved, so did his career. In 1998 he co-starred with Koji Yakusho in Kizuna as Police Detective Sako. For his performance, Watanabe won a Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2001 Watanabe announced that he was heavily in debt and that his million-dollar home had been repossessed. The next year he filmed Sennen no Koi (Thousand-year Love) and won another Japanese Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2003 he appeared in his first Western film and fifteenth movie, The Last Samurai, co-starring Tom Cruise. For his performance as Katsumoto, Watanabe was nominated for the 2003 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Already a tall man by Japanese standards, at just over six feet, Watanabe gained approximately an additional twenty pounds to make himself even more imposing for his role as Katsumoto.
In 2004 he was featured in People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People edition. As of 2004, Watanabe became the sixth Asian actor to be nominated for an Academy Award.
The following year he played the part of the Ra’s al Ghul decoy in Batman Begins, with Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Morgan Freeman, and Gary Oldman. He followed that with the role of The Chairman in 2005’s Memoirs of a Geisha based on the best-selling Arthur Golden novel. His co-stars in the film include Ziyi Zhang and Suzuka Ohgo.
Watanabe has two children, including son, actor Shin Shinitiro (born 1984) and daughter, An Watanabe (born 1986), with his first wife Yumiko Watanabe whom he divorced in April 2005. On December 3, 2005, he married his second wife, Japanese actress Kaho Minami.
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