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Today, we’re diving into the cast of Netflix’s Japanese action drama House of Ninjas.

The series follows the Tawara family, a once-powerful clan of shinobi who have tried to leave their dangerous past behind and live ordinary lives.

Here’s your guide to the House of Ninjas cast, including their ages, heights, Instagram accounts, notable movies and TV shows, and some surprisingly fun facts about the actors behind the characters.

Profiles and ages updated as of September 9, 2026.

Netflix House of Ninjas Cast: Profiles & Surprising Facts

Haru Tawara — Kento Kaku

The second son of the Tawara family, who has buried his talent as a shinobi and now works for a vending-machine company while carrying deep regret over a mission six years earlier.

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Surprising Facts About Kento Kaku

• Kaku made his acting debut in the 2007 film Shindo. He quickly attracted attention for both his polished looks and unusually strong comic timing.
• His aunt is actress Chikako Kaku, known for dramas including Danjo 7-nin Natsu Monogatari. Kaku has said that he was able to ask her for advice when he was first considering a career in entertainment.
• In 2016, he married actress Nana Eikura. The two became closer after appearing together in the drama For N.
• Kaku and Eikura now have two children. The couple have chosen not to publicly reveal their children’s names or faces.
• And House of Ninjas is much more than just another starring role for Kaku. The project began with an idea that Kaku himself brought to Netflix.
• He not only stars as Haru, but also worked on the original concept and serves as a co-executive producer.
• Preparing to play a shinobi also required a dramatic physical transformation. Kaku seriously trained in parkour before filming.
• He reportedly gained around 15 to 20 kilograms — roughly 33 to 44 pounds before cutting the weight back down to build a leaner, more ninja-like physique.
• In 2024, Kaku and director Dave Boyle founded the production company SIGNAL181.
• The company reflects Kaku’s growing interest in creating projects behind the camera and bringing Japanese stories to global audiences.

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Soichi Tawara — Yosuke Eguchi

The father of the Tawara family, who has turned his back on the shinobi world and now protects the family sake brewery while desperately trying to keep his family away from danger.

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Surprising Facts About Yosuke Eguchi

• Eguchi has been acting since the 1980s. By the 1990s, he had become one of the defining stars of Japan’s hugely popular trendy drama era.
• One of his biggest trademarks at the time was his long hair. His look — especially during the success of Under One Roof and his beloved character “An-chan” — became so popular that many young men copied his hairstyle.
• Eguchi is also much more than an actor. He has had a long career as a singer-songwriter and has written and composed many of his own songs.
• In 1999, he married singer Chisato Moritaka. The couple have long been regarded as one of the Japanese entertainment industry’s most enduring celebrity marriages.
• They have a daughter and a son. Their home reportedly contains numerous guitars, and their children also play musical instruments.
• In 2024, Eguchi released RIDE ON!, his first original album in around 25 years.
• The release marked a major return to his music career.
• In House of Ninjas, Eguchi plays a father who has abandoned the shinobi life.
• But Eguchi himself has spent decades appearing in action-oriented productions. That background helped him give Soichi a convincing mix of physical authority, seriousness and dry humor.

Yoko Tawara — Tae Kimura

The Tawara family’s mother, who lives the life of an ordinary housewife but secretly misses the excitement of her days as a shinobi.

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Surprising Facts About Tae Kimura

• Kimura began learning classical ballet as a child. She later studied jazz dance, tap dance and traditional Japanese dance as well.
• She started working as a stage actress while still at university. But acting didn’t immediately pay the bills.
• Kimura supported herself by working multiple part-time jobs at the same time.
• At around 21, she suddenly lost her father. Afterward, she worked extremely hard to help support her family, sometimes cutting back dramatically on sleep.
• Because she was repeatedly cast as women facing tragedy and hardship, Japanese media once joked that she was the actress most suited to playing “Japan’s most unfortunate woman.”
• In the film All Around Us, Kimura played a wife struggling with severe emotional distress and won Best Actress at the Japan Academy Film Prize.
• In 2005, she married a man who works in advertising. The couple have one daughter.
• House of Ninjas also pushed Kimura physically. She took on wire action and tried to perform as much of the movement herself as possible rather than relying entirely on stunt performers.

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Gaku Tawara — Kengo Kora

The eldest Tawara son, who disappeared from the family after a mission six years earlier and carries a secret powerful enough to shake the entire household.

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Surprising Facts About Kengo Kora

• Kora was working behind the scenes for a local information magazine in his hometown of Kumamoto when he was scouted by a talent agency.
• He made his acting debut in 2005 with Gokusen 2.
• At the time, he was still a high-school student.
• One of his most talked-about early roles came in the film Snakes and Earrings.
• Kora played a young man covered in facial piercings, with extensive special-effects makeup transforming his appearance.
• His starring role in A Story of Yonosuke later became one of the defining performances of his career.
• Kora’s gentle portrayal of the endlessly likable Yonosuke earned him recognition from several film awards.
• After the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes, Kora became involved in support efforts for his hometown.
• He has continued contributing through charity screenings and other local initiatives.
• In 2024, Kora married actress Kanako Tahara, the eldest daughter of singer Toshihiko Tahara.
• Their 17-year age difference also attracted attention in Japanese entertainment media.
• In 2025, the couple announced the birth of their first child.
• They shared the news together in a joint statement.

Nagi Tawara — Aju Makita

The Tawara family’s eldest daughter, an art student who secretly continues her shinobi training and repeatedly takes dangerous action on her own.

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Surprising Facts About Aju Makita

• Makita became interested in entertainment after watching her older brother work as a child actor.
• Seeing him on television made her want to do the same.
• And Aju is her real name, not a stage name.
• Her parents reportedly chose it with the idea of a “colorful jewel.”
• Makita began working as a child actor at around seven years old.
• At 10, she appeared in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s television drama Going My Home.
• Kore-eda was impressed by her acting ability.
• He later cast her again in projects including After the Storm and The Third Murder.
• Makita’s performance in True Mothers became another major breakthrough.
• She played a teenage girl facing an unintended pregnancy and went on to win several honors, including the Newcomer of the Year award at the Japan Academy Film Prize.
• Away from acting, Makita enjoys playing guitar and riding motorcycles.
• She also holds a standard motorcycle license.
• Preparing for House of Ninjas required serious physical work.
• Makita has said that before training, she was so inflexible that she couldn’t touch the floor during a forward bend.
• After extensive practice, she was eventually performing fight scenes on rooftops.

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Riku Tawara — Tenta Banka

The youngest Tawara child, who grows up without knowing that his family are shinobi and begins investigating their increasingly suspicious behavior.

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Surprising Facts About Tenta Banka

• Banka has been working as a child actor since 2019.
• Despite his young age, he has already appeared in numerous films and television dramas, often praised for his natural acting style.
• And he isn’t the only performer in his family.
• His siblings Ichiro Banka, Sansaki Banka and Kyuta Banka have also worked as child actors.
• In the film SABAKAN, Tenta appeared alongside his real-life older brother Ichiro — playing brothers on screen as well.
• He has also appeared with his younger brother Kyuta in a McDonald’s commercial.
• Their real sibling chemistry made the performances even more natural.
• Tenta’s special skills include backflips, walking on his hands and shooting.
• He clearly enjoys physical activity.
• His hobbies include basketball, trampoline and video games.
• That energetic personality fits neatly with Riku, the endlessly curious youngest member of the Tawara household.
• When House of Ninjas reached No. 1 on Netflix’s global rankings, Tenta celebrated online with the message “The Tawara family is the best.”
• It was a small glimpse of how close the actors playing the family had become.

Taki Tawara — Nobuko Miyamoto

The mysterious grandmother quietly living with the Tawara family, a retired kunoichi whose sharp instincts and powers of observation never really disappeared.

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Surprising Facts About Nobuko Miyamoto

• Miyamoto made her acting debut in 1963.
• She has now worked across stage, film and television for more than six decades.
• In 1969, she married filmmaker Juzo Itami.
• Itami was not only her husband but also an important mentor in her acting career.
• Miyamoto appeared in all 10 films directed by Itami.
• She starred in many of them, including the enormously successful A Taxing Woman.
• Her performance as a tax investigator in that film earned her Best Actress at the Japan Academy Film Prize.
• Acting also runs in the family.
• Her eldest son, Mansaku Ikeuchi, is an actor, and mother and son have appeared in the same productions.
• Since 2007, Miyamoto has served as director of the Juzo Itami Memorial Museum.
• Through the museum, she continues preserving her late husband’s films, writings and ideas for future generations.
• She also performs as a jazz singer.
• Her live performances reveal a much softer side of her artistic personality than many of her film roles.

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Karen Ito — Riho Yoshioka

A magazine reporter investigating a mysterious incident from six years earlier who meets Haru during her reporting and gradually moves closer to the secrets of the Tawara family and the shinobi world.

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Surprising Facts About Riho Yoshioka

• Yoshioka practiced Japanese calligraphy from a young age and eventually reached the level of eighth dan.
• She even majored in calligraphy at university and originally considered becoming a professional calligrapher.
• When she began seriously pursuing acting, Yoshioka regularly traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo by overnight bus.
• She took lessons while supporting herself through part-time jobs.
• Yoshioka originally auditioned to play the heroine in the NHK morning drama Asa ga Kita — but didn’t get the role.
• However, the production team remembered her.
• She was later cast as the bespectacled supporting character Nobu-chan, which became one of her early breakthrough roles.
• In 2016, Yoshioka became the ninth commercial girl for Zexy, one of Japan’s most famous bridal magazines.
• The campaign dramatically increased her public profile.
• She is also famously obsessed with cats.
• Her family home has had multiple cats and dogs, and Yoshioka has jokingly described herself as having a “severe cat addiction.”
• In the film Anime Supremacy!, she played a rookie animation director.
• The performance earned her an Outstanding Actress honor at the Japan Academy Film Prize.
• In House of Ninjas, Karen is unusual because she enters the story as a completely ordinary person.
• She first meets Haru at a beef-bowl restaurant, and their connection gradually pulls her into a world she never knew existed.

Jin Hamashima — Tomorowo Taguchi

The head of the government’s Bureau of Ninja Management, who brings secret missions to the Tawara family and pulls them back into the world of shinobi.

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Surprising Facts About Tomorowo Taguchi

• Taguchi’s real name is Tomoo Taguchi.
• Before becoming widely known as an actor, he worked as a manga artist and illustrator.
• During his manga years, he used the pen name Eiga Jiro.
• His work included adult-oriented manga.
• Taguchi was also famous as the vocalist of the punk band Bachikaburi.
• The band became known for its wild and provocative live performances.
• In 1989, Taguchi starred in Tetsuo: The Iron Man.
• The cult cyberpunk film left a huge impression on movie fans both inside and outside Japan.
• His voice may be equally familiar to Japanese audiences.
• Taguchi became widely recognized as the narrator of the documentary series Project X: Challengers.
• He has also worked as a film director.
• His directing credits include Iden & Tity and Shikisoku Generation.
• In House of Ninjas, Taguchi plays Hamashima with an almost impossible-to-read calmness.
• His deadpan delivery adds a strange kind of humor to even the most tense scenes.

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Masamitsu Oki — Tokio Emoto

A newly assigned technical specialist at the Bureau of Ninja Management who supports the Tawara family through surveillance systems and communications.

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Surprising Facts About Tokio Emoto

• Emoto grew up in one of Japan’s most recognizable acting families.
• His father is actor Akira Emoto, his mother was actress Kazue Tsunogae, his older brother is actor Tasuku Emoto, and his sister-in-law is actress Sakura Ando.
• His acting career began in an equally unusual way.
• At 14, Emoto attended an audition that his older brother Tasuku had been unable to take.
• Tokio ended up passing.
• As a child, however, his dream had nothing to do with acting.
• He wanted to become a miyadaiku, a traditional carpenter who builds and restores shrines and temples.
• Even after his acting career became busy, Emoto continued working part-time for a while.
• Among his jobs was washing dishes at restaurants.
• He is also close friends with actors including Atsuko Maeda, Mitsuki Takahata and Sosuke Ikematsu.
• Their celebrity friend group became jokingly known as the “Busu-kai.”
• Emoto married actress Mari Iriki in 2020.
• The couple divorced in 2022 and released respectful statements about one another afterward.
• In 2025, Emoto remarried actress and drummer Honami Sato.
• In 2026, the couple announced that they were expecting their first child together.

Final Thoughts on the House of Ninjas Cast

And there you have it!

From veteran stars like Yosuke Eguchi, Tae Kimura and Nobuko Miyamoto to internationally recognized actors such as Kento Kaku, Riho Yoshioka and Kengo Kora, House of Ninjas brings together an unusually varied Japanese cast.

Knowing a little about the actors behind the Tawara family and the people surrounding them makes the secretive world of House of Ninjas even more fun to explore.

Thanks for reading!

If another face in the series caught your attention, check out their movies and TV shows—you may be surprised by just how many familiar Japanese films and dramas this cast has appeared in.