9. Famous People



Ken Watanabe

       Ken Watanabe is Japanese actor, and he was born in Uonuma city of Niigata prefecture in 1959. He has appeared in movies and dramas in Japan and overseas. He wanted to become musician until he graduated his high school, but he had to give up the dream for some reasons. When he watched the performance of the theater company, he was impressed, and he became a research student of the theater company in 1978. Then he was promoted to company members in 1982. He appeared on television for the first time in that year, and he made his debut as a movie actor in the two years after. Then he appeared in various movies and dramas and became a popular actor. But he developed acute myeloid leukemia in 1989. He continued the treatment, and he was completely returned in 1995. He appeared in the American movie titled "The Last Samurai" in 2003. He was nominated for the 61st Golden Globe Awards Best Supporting Actor Award and the 76th Annual Academy Awards Best Supporting Actor Award for the year. Moreover he appeared in many foreign movies such as "Batman Begins", "SAYURI" and "Inception". He is a very famous actor in Japan and overseas.

     

Kentaro Minagawa

       Kentaro Minagawa is an alpine skier, and he also was born in Yuzawa city of Niigata prefecture in 1977. There are a lot of ski resorts in Yuzawa city. He is a petite player in the alpine skiing players. The size of the body is directly linked to time in the slalom competition. But he is challenging the world with his original techniques that was born from his own idea. He took part in the Nagano Olympics as a Japanese representative. He won the sixth in the World Cup of slalom in 2000 and joined the ranks of the top players in the world. Although alpine skiers used skis about 200 cm up to that time, a short thick ski called short carving skis was developed at that time. It had some advantage but also had some disadvantage; so many skiers selected the long skis. But Minagawa selected the short carving skis. He proved its combat power and was featured in a variety of media as "revolutionary of ski" that changed the history of the slalom. Then he took part in Salt Lake City Olympics, Turin Olympics and Vancouver Olympics as a Japanese representative. He married Aiko Uemura, who is an alpine skier, in 2009.

 

Aiko Uemura

 

I used the following website.
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%B8%A1%E8%BE%BA%E8%AC%99
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%9A%86%E5%B7%9D%E8%B3%A2%E5%A4%AA%E9%83%8E