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In 1974, Koji Yano was born into a poor family in a remote village in Osaka, Japan. As the youngest and only male in the family, Koji Yano has been under tremendous pressure to support his family since he was a child.
His parents and older siblings relied on his thin shoulders to support the family, which caused the young man to be unable to devote himself to his studies, and was forced to drop out of school and enter the society to start a difficult working life.
Despite the hardships, Koji Yano has always burned in his heart with a burning passion for the performing arts and a beautiful yearning. In 1994, at the age of 20, he decided to go into the bustling city of Tokyo on his own, hoping to realize his dream in a place full of opportunities.
Koji Yano, who first arrived in Tokyo, had nothing, and even a stable job was hard to find. However, he was not discouraged, and with perseverance and determination, he managed to find a sales job to make ends meet, while also actively seeking opportunities to step into the entertainment industry.
At this moment, the god of fate threw an olive branch to Koji Yano, who had the honor of becoming the personal assistant of Ken Morita, the hottest actress at the time. Although the work content is monotonous and boring, Koji Yano makes full use of his spare time to devote himself to studying his acting skills, and finally wins praise from many directors for his superb acting skills.
In 2000, when he received an invitation to perform in the Chinese TV series "Eternal Lovers", Yano Koji did not hesitate to embark on the journey to Beijing.
After only half a year of shooting, Koji Yano was deeply fascinated by this mysterious and beautiful land. He was determined to turn his career focus to China, and gave it a poetic name, "Rising on the Edge of the Cliff."
Although he was confused and troubled by meager salaries and soaring prices in the early days of his arrival in Beijing, Yano Koji finally chose to stay in this land and opened a new chapter in his acting career in China.
From an unknown young man in a small Japanese town to a high-profile Japanese movie star in the Chinese film and television industry, Koji Yano's life path can be described as tortuous and arduous.
However, he never gave up on his dream, and with his perseverance and professional acting skills, he finally achieved a breakthrough in self-worth and a gorgeous transformation in his life.
As Yano's career in China flourished, he inevitably faced a serious challenge of frequently playing the unsettling role of a Japanese officer.
Since 2000, Koji Yano made his debut as a Japanese officer in the hit Chinese drama series "Towards the Republic", and although he does not fully recognize the behavior of the character, he still does his best to shape and present each character with his passion for his work and high professional ethics.
However, a series of subsequent works of the same genre, such as "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" and "Fire King Kong", made him under increasing pressure. "In the past, I felt that I was not just playing a character, but more like a robot who was purely pursuing killing and war.
When it comes to these characters, Yano's inner pain is overflowing, and every time he sees himself in a Japanese military uniform, he feels a strong sense of discomfort, and this sense of guilt for historical crimes makes him feel tormented, and he is deeply entangled in whether to continue to work on this type of script.
With the director's in-depth understanding and strong support, Koji Yano finally broke free from the shackles of these negative images. He began to select more scripts full of positive energy, and tried his best to show his rich and diverse acting talents.
Finally, in 2006, he was honored to be the resident host of the widely loved talk show "Everyday Upward", and Koji Yano's humorous and funny performance in the show not only won warm applause from the audience, but also won the honor of "Most Outstanding Foreign Artist of 2010".
After a difficult choice and painful struggle, Koji Yano finally managed to break free from the shackles of the "devil" role and find his own unique way of expression. This is not only a major breakthrough in his acting career, but also a relief and self-identity in the depths of his soul.
Since then, he no longer sticks to a fixed image, but gives back to the audience with more positive and sunny works, and contributes to the promotion of cultural exchanges between China and Japan.
Koji Yano's outstanding performance in the program "Everyday Upward" has quickly won wide attention and high praise in China, and his unique and interesting hosting style has fascinated the audience, and he has been praised by the industry as "the most outstanding foreign artist of 2010".
At the same time, Koji Yano also actively integrates Chinese culture into his daily life. He took the initiative to change his Chinese name, married a beautiful Chongqing girl, and even included his beloved daughter in Chinese nationality.
Commenting on these decisions, he said frankly: "Although Japan's social welfare and education standards are relatively superior, and it is true that our daughters can enjoy better educational resources if they become Japanese citizens, we must not ignore the importance of Chinese nationality." ”
Koji Yano's remarks undoubtedly demonstrate his praise and recognition of Chinese culture. He often famously said, "Japan is the soil of my life, and China is my second home."
Through many personal choices, such as marriage, changing his name, and choosing his daughter's nationality, Koji Yano made it clear that he had developed a deep emotional bond with this mysterious country.
When the new crown epidemic was raging in 2020, as a Japanese artist who cares about China, Yano Koji did not hesitate to use various network resources to purchase up to 130,000 masks from Japan, and actively advocated for public assistance.
Despite the cynicism of some Japanese people, such as "Could it be that you have already scavenged all the masks in Japan?", he is still unswervingly devoted to the great cause of promoting international cultural exchanges.
Immediately afterwards, on the major social issue of Xinjiang cotton, Koji Yano also publicly supported China's position. He demonstrated his deep and fiery patriotism with practical actions, and made everyone understand that it is not all Japanese people that we really despise, but those who dare not face history and cowardly admit their mistakes.
Mr. Yano's words and deeds undoubtedly show that he has become a well-deserved "half Chinese". He gradually changed from being unfamiliar and apprehensive about Chinese culture to being proactive in learning Chinese, gaining a deep understanding of the Chinese way of life, and fully supporting various causes in China.
As he himself said, "Japan is the soil that nurtures my life, and China is my second home." This sentence aptly expresses Mr. Yano's deep affection for these two countries.
Mr. Koji Yano's actions not only won the admiration and appreciation of the broad masses of the Chinese people, but also eased the tension between the Chinese and Japanese people to a certain extent.
With his own practical actions, he vividly explained what it means to be a "friendly neighbor" and made an indispensable contribution to promoting the development of Sino-Japanese friendly relations.
However, despite his successful career and cultural identity in China, Mr. Yano was met with numerous revil and criticism when he returned to Japan.
Some people shouted the slogan "Please leave Japan" and accused him of "insulting China". These offensive statements spread quickly, and some people even fabricated rumors that "Koji Yano returned to Japan and was beaten".
At first, Mr. Koji Yano was furious at these accusations, believing that these people lacked the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. Over time, however, he came to realize that this was not people's fault, but rather that Japanese education failed to guide the public to a correct understanding of historical truth.
In such a severe public opinion environment, Mr. Koji Yano stepped forward and smashed all doubts and abuses with a thunderous force. Just as he said firmly and forcefully when he personally issued a statement: "Where did the bastard spread such rumors? I'm shooting a movie in Tokyo at the moment! I'm living a good life!" This short sentence was like a bombshell, instantly dispelling many doubts and suspicions in his remarks.
In fact, to everyone's surprise, Mr. Koji Yano not only did not encounter violent attacks by Japanese extremists, but won warm praise from the Japanese authorities for his enthusiasm for cultural exchanges between China and Japan.
What is shocking is that after returning to his homeland, this outstanding Japanese actor, who has devoted himself to the Chinese film stage for many years, chose to play a cameo role in front of the camera in the image of wearing the Chinese national costume! He has lived in China for such a long time that as a Japanese citizen, it seems that he has already faced the problem of "not adapting to the water and soil."
"Sometimes, dealing with relationships in Tokyo can be really exhausting. Now that I'm about to embark on a journey to China to shoot, I'm going to put up with these concerns for a while.
"Koji Yano was once so emotional.
Obviously, his words are not deliberately catering to the needs of the market, but from the deep admiration and identification of Chinese culture that he has always had.
Because of this, he has grown into a veritable "half Chinese".
Having lived and worked in China for a long time, Koji Yano's affection for this land has long been ingrained in his bones. Even when his native Japan was criticized, he still stood his ground and proved his love for this land with practical actions.
No matter what the attacks were, he remained steadfast on China's side, supporting and defending the country he considered his second home in his own unique way.
It is this tenacity that transcends national boundaries that has made Koji Yano an active promoter of cultural exchanges between China and Japan. He interpreted true friendship with his words and deeds, eliminated the estrangement between the two countries with practical actions, and made due contributions to enhancing mutual understanding between the two peoples.
Today, Koji Yano is rarely in the spotlight and enjoys spending more quality time with his family. He still focuses on his acting career, but devotes more energy to the field of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges, and has become an active practitioner in this field.
At the time of the raging new crown epidemic, Koji Yano took the initiative to share a video of his vaccination on social media, actively calling on the majority of netizens to support China's fight against the epidemic.
Although some netizens still accused him of "insulting China", Koji Yano did not waver.
On the contrary, he demonstrated his deep affection for China with practical actions, and made everyone understand that we should criticize those who dare not admit their mistakes, not Japanese friends who love China deeply like him.
Today, Mr. Yano's life has become more introverted and low-key than before, and he no longer appears frequently in the public eye. However, no matter where he was, he never forgot to use his words and deeds to convey the close emotional bond between the two kingdoms.
The period he spent in China has been deeply imprinted in the trajectory of his life, and has become an irreplaceable and precious chapter in his life journey, just as he himself once sighed with deep affection: "My motherland Japan is the land where I give birth to life, and China is my second hometown", this sincere sentence aptly interprets Mr. Yano's deep feelings for these two countries
He loves Japan and loves China even more; as a Japanese citizen, he is also known as "half a Chinese", no matter how the world changes in the future, this deep friendship that transcends national boundaries will be forever engraved in his heart, although he has entered middle age, Mr. Yano Koji still maintains a positive attitude, he firmly believes that as long as he makes unremitting efforts, he will be able to contribute his own strength to the cause of cultural exchanges between China and Japan, so that this precious friendship can be passed on and never extinguished.