Japan Names 1st Voice Actor Masako Nozawa, Manga Creator Keiko Takemiya as Persons of Cultural Merit – News
The Japanese government has selected 21 honorees for this year’s roster of Persons of Cultural Merit. The roster includes Masako Nozawa (Dragon Ball‘s Son Goku, GeGeGe no Kitarō‘s Kitaro) as the first voice actor to be so honored, as well as manga creator Keiko Takemiya (Toward the Terra, The Door into Summer, Andromeda Stories), dancer and actor Min Tanaka (Children of the Sea, live-action Rurouni Kenshin films), and playwright and actor Hideki Noda (“Tokatonton” anime short’s narrator). Their ceremony will take place at The Okura Tokyo hotel on November 4.
Nozawa first appeared in the oiriginal 1963 Astro Boy anime series. She then voiced the character Kitaro in the 1968 GeGeGe no Kitarō anime, and in the 1971 sequel. She returned in the franchise to voice the character of Medama Oyaji in the 2018 GeGeGe no Kitarō remake, and in the 2023 GeGeGe no Kitarō ~Kappa no Terraforming anime film. Since then, Nozawa has played several lead character roles in different anime series, but she is best known as the voice of Son Goku in the Dragon Ball series.
Nozawa also holds the Guinness World Record for “voice actor who voiced the same character in a video game for the longest period” and “longest video game voice acting career,” for her work as Dragon Ball‘s Son Goku. She won one of the 71st Kan Kikuchi Prizes “as a traiblazing representative of Japanese voice actors” in 2023.
Takemiya helped pioneer both modern shōjo manga and modern science fiction manga. Along with Moto Hagio and Riyoko Ikeda, Takemiya is part of the Year 24 Group — a grouping of innovative female manga creators who were born in or around the Year Shōwa 24 (1949) and who shaped the now diverse field of shōjo manga.
Takemiya has won the Shogakukan Manga Award for both her To Terra and Kaze to Ki no Uta manga. Vertical has published both To Terra and Andromeda Stories in English. Manga Planet licensed both manga in 2019 as Toward the Terra and Stories of Andromeda Galaxy, respectively. The Toward the Terra manga inspired an anime in 2007.
Sources: Yomiuri, 47News via Hachima Kikō
