Kanji Watanabe — Ikiru Character Profile

About Kanji Watanabe

Terminally ill Tokyo bureaucrat seeking meaning and purpose before death.

Kanji Watanabe — Character Profile

Alignment

Hero

Species

Human

Abilities

Bureaucratic management, Project planning, Empathy, Resilience, Leadership

• Strength: 3/10
• Intelligence: 7/10
• Charisma: 6/10
• Morality: 8/10
• Influence: 7/10

Character Facts

Played by

Takashi Shimura

Appears in

Ikiru (1952)

Role

Protagonist

Relationships (3)

• Kanji Watanabe — Temporal Self — Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura)

  Contrast between his past stagnant routine and his future-driven final months.

• Kanji Watanabe — Social Guide — Novelist (Yūnosuke Itō)

  A fleeting but impactful mentorship during Watanabe's hedonistic phase.

• Kanji Watanabe — Professional Supervisor — Toyo (Miki Odagiri)

  Direct workplace hierarchy where Watanabe holds administrative authority over Toyo.

Explore the full interactive character relationship map of Ikiru

More characters from Ikiru

• Sakai (Haruo Tanaka)
• Mitsuo, son of Kanji (Nobuo Kaneko)
• Ohara (Bokuzen Hidari)
• Deputy Mayor (Nobuo Nakamura)
• Toyo (Miki Odagiri)
• Housewife (Noriko Honma)
• Housewife (Kin Sugai)
• Housewife (Eiko Miyoshi)
• Tatsu Watanabe (Kumeko Urabe)
• Intern (Isao Kimura)
• Novelist (Yūnosuke Itō)
• Kimura (Shinichi Himori)