Kōji Hashimoto (橋本 広司, Hashimoto Kōji, born 1 January 1956), known professionally as Kōji Yakusho (役所 広司, Yakusho Kōji), is a Japanese actor. He is well known for his starring roles in Shall We Dance? (1996), Cure (1997), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), 13 Assassins (2010), The Third Murder (2017), The Blood of Wolves (2018) and Under the Open Sky (2020). He is also best known internationally for his role as Takuro Yamashita in Shōhei Imamura's The Eel, which won the Palme d'Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival and as Yasujiro Wataya in Alejandro González Iñárritu's Babel (2006) which was nominated for Best Picture at the 79th Academy Awards. Yakusho has won three Japan Academy Prize for his performances in Shall We Dance?, The Third Murder and The Blood of Wolves.