Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2013

women of the year

According to Vogue Japan

• Actress Hikari Mitsushima won acclaim playing the main character in the NTV drama Woman, about a widowed mother of two and her struggles with the welfare system and her estranged mother.
• Paralympic track and field athlete Mami Sato’s story of loss—her right leg to cancer and friends and family to the 2011 earthquake—at the Olympic and Paralympic committee bid won the hearts of many. The most touching part wasn’t her loss but her salvation by sports.
• Science-oriented artist Sputniko! graduated from the Royal College of Art in London and is heralded for her use of gender dynamics, technology and pop culture in her work. She has exhibited at London’s MOT, New York’s MoMa and more.
• Actress Kirin Kiki has been awarded many Japan Academy Awards for her TV and film performances over the year. After battling breast cancer, she returned in the 2013 Palme d’Or-nominated Like Father, Like Son.

men of the year

According to GQ Japan

• Actor Masato Sakai, a Japanese Academy Award winner, played Naoki Hanzawa in the drama series of the same name that also spawned the catch phrase, “Bai gaeshi.”
• Kankuro Kudo pens TV dramas, films and plays and is also a director, actor and musician. He wrote the script for this year’s hit TV series Ama-chan, which included top 10 buzzword “Jejeje.”
• At age 23, Waseda graduate and writer Ryo Asai won the Naoki Prize for Japanese lit this year for his novel Nanimono (“Somebody”), making him the youngest male author ever to win it.
• Buzzword number one creator and prep school teacher-cum-celebrity Osamu Hayashi is everywhere these days. His original “Itsu yaru ka? Ima desho?” (“When will you do it? Now, right?“) has morphed into “When will you buy it?” for Toyota and “When will you go?” for HIS Travel. The answer? We think already know.