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Koji Yakusho is an acclaimed and famed Japanese actor who has appeared in many notable films, including Tampopo, Unagi and Babel, but may be best known internationally for his role in Shall We Dance, which at the time of its release was Asia's biggest film export. He was born in the southern city of Nagasaki as Koji Hashimoto, but moved to Tokyo and began working in the city's municipality from which he borrowed his alias. Yakusho means 'government office.' While at acting school he met actress Saeko Kawatsu whom he soon married in 1982. He picked up stage roles, moved to a TV serial on Japan's national broadcaster NHK in 1983 and had his first major break playing a mostly silent role in the avant-garde food drama Tampopo. Koji has collaborated with director Kurosawa Kiyoshi several times, won the Best Actor Award at the Japanese Academy Awards more than once and been nominated for it and other awards even more often. He directed Gaman No Abura in 2009. In 2023, he received the Best Actor award at the 76th Cannes Film Festival for his lead role in Wim Wenders' Perfect Days.

Satomi Mikuriya was born on 20 May 1948 in Isahaya, Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Garaga (1989), Twinkle Nora Rock Me! (1985) and Nora (1985). He died on 14 December 2022 in Japan.

Charles Brubaker was born in Japan in 1989. He has been cartooning all throughout his life. After graduating from the University of Tennessee at Martin, he started cartooning professionally, having sold comics to MAD Magazine and SpongeBob Comics. From 2016 to 2019 he worked as a storyboard artist on "Pencilmation". He has also created comics "Ask a Cat" and "The Fuzzy Princess". In 2020, he began producing his own animation. He lives in Tennessee.