Why?

You're a very scary, intimidating character

No, no, I'm a gentleman.

A gentleman, of course.

Along Japan's rural Pacific coastline, 400  kilometers north of Tokyo lies the bustling  

fishing town of Kesennuma and it's here in  this beautiful but remote region where you  

might find an icon of japanese cinema casually  wandering along the seafront at first it might  

seem confusing as Ken Watanabe isn't from Kesennuma  or even Tohoku region at all but in the last  

decade his fate has become intertwined with that  of the town and its people in 2011 a devastating  

earthquake and tsunami destroyed much of Japan's  east coastline and after getting involved with  

the recovery efforts Ken never truly stopped  building lasting friendships with the local community

hosting major events and even opening  a popular cafe in the reconstructed harbour  

I was recently incredibly lucky to spend a week  with Ken Watanabe to uncover the remarkable story  

of what led one of japan's best-loved actors to  adopt Kesennuma and make it such a big part of  

his life and to discuss his groundbreaking career  as the first japanese actor to be nominated for  

both a Tony award and an Oscar with enviable  Hollywood success in movies such as

The Last Samurai, Letters from Iwo Jima and Inception.  In what may be one of the most inspiring and

undeniably surreal weeks of my life, this  was my week with Japan's biggest movie star.

You know I always joked the day that I met  Ken Watanabe would be the day that I would

leave japan because after that you know you've  completed Japan you've done everything

So this is pretty awkward I didn't expect it to happen  ever. But we are on our way to the town of Kesennuma

it's about two hours north of Sendai it's a pretty  remote place and we're going to the K-Port cafe

Ken's cafe that he's owned and run for eight years  now because of everything that's been going on he  

hasn't actually been able to get back to the town  in a while now so today is his first day back and  

later on this week Ken is actually putting on  an event where he'll be performing and singing  

with some famous Japanese artists.

Am I nervous? - Absurdly. But above all I'm kind of

excited and curious as this is a side  of Ken's life we don't really get to see much

off the big screen. I just hope I don't make  a fool of myself along the way, god forbid.

This is it, the K-Port in Kesennuma. I haven't  been here in maybe three or four years.

The last time I came up here, there was no Ken Watanabe,  today hopefully we'll get a bit more lucky.

Good god.

Good morning Ken san.

Nice to meet you Chris.

Welcome to my cafe, K-Port

Thank you so much, it's a bit of a  shock seeing you just coming out of the K-Port

It's a bit surreal but thank you so much

It's a beautiful blue sky.

Yes a beautiful day to come to Kesennuma. How does it feel to be back?

Shall we go inside? - Yeah come in

Walking into the K-Port you're greeted with  the tantalising scent of pizzas in the oven  

cakes being baked and coffee being  served, it's a dangerous place to be

if you're on a diet and as it's Ken's  first day back in the cafe for a while

there's official business to be taken  care of like eating this delicious cake.

As the owner, Ken's pretty involved in the menu  and after giving his feedback on the new dessert

he sets about signing autographs for the lucky customers that have caught him in the restaurant this afternoon.

On less hectic days he even gets stuck in and serves the unsuspecting diners, I mean

Imagine having Ken Watanabe just randomly bringing  over your pasta, you'd probably fall off your chair.

When customers come here for some lunch and  then Ken Watanabe is just walking around serving customers

You must have had some really surprised responses from customers when they're

like "Oh my god what what's going on there's  Ken Watanabe look!" it's not a normal situation.

K-Port is clearly a big part of ken's life even on  the days he's not physically present he hand

writes a message sharing his thoughts which  are faxed through and left at the entrance

of the cafe to welcome customers. With K-Port  recently passing its eight year anniversary

I wanted to find out why he'd chosen to build  a cafe in particular given his vastly different

background as a performer.

So when you started K-Port it would have been November 2013 right?

- 2013 yeah

Around that time I was in Osaka for my  first time and I remember I was on Ebisu Bridge

and I saw your face on a big billboard  and I thought "Oh it's Ken Watanabe!"

I wonder what Ken is doing right now and you were  here in Kesennuma opening the K-Port. To go from an

actor to a Restauranteur, was that a difficult thing?  Was it scary to open a cafe?

I mean we're sitting here drinking Ken's  favorite coffee brand and we've had a lot

of food that you've personally been involved in. I watched you eat a cake earlier

and give a careful analysis on the cream and the content of the cake.

Every aspect of this cafe is very much a piece of you isn't it?

I'm not going to pretend that this is a  normal day, that was so surreal getting out the car

the door opens and it's just Ken Watanabe right there. To go from seeing him on the

screen over the last 20 years to just standing  in front of me is pretty trippy and i'm not going

to pretend like that didn't blow my mind, but I'm looking forward to getting to know Ken and

to hear his story and what he's been up to  in Kesennuma over the last sort of ten years

But yeah it's very trippy it's very weird and I'm not going to get used to that.

In the evening I'm lucky to be invited to a  dinner celebrating Ken's return amongst his  

closest local friends with a delicious meal of  freshly grilled seafood and sake it's a great  

chance to experience the warm hospitality and  atmosphere that Kesennuma's locals are known for.

And always remember if you find yourself at  a Japanese dinner party the etiquette is to

continuously fill up the glasses of your fellow  guests and I'll admit trying not to spill a bottle

of sake over Ken Watanabe was a nerve-wracking  highlight of the meal. Two of the key people at

the dinner are Ken's neighbour Yuji san who owns  the fish market next door and Sugawara san who's

involved in the local business association and  who owns Kesennuma's acclaimed sake brewery

The sake of which i've probably enjoyed a bit too  much this evening the next morning i meet with

them both to hear how they initially felt when a  famous face arrived in town all those years ago.

If you walk around Kesennuma today, many of the signs of the tsunami have faded with the town's successful reconstruction

it's hard to imagine that just 10 years ago this  bustling town had been all but wiped off the map

along with over 500 kilometers  of Japan's Pacific coastline,

On March 11th 2011, a massive magnitude  9.1 earthquake triggered a devastating

tsunami that would claim the lives of over 19,000  people, trigger the meltdown of a nuclear reactor

and inflict an estimated 200 billion dollars of damage

Do you remember the day or  the moment you decided to

get involved with Kesennuma and get involved with the disaster recovery?

Ken started by launching a video  campaign online to raise awareness  

with support from fellow Hollywood actors and  colleagues, but after realising the scale of the  

disaster he decided to head north to help  people on the ground visiting 22 shelters  

across the region with supplies. He paints a  bleak picture of what he found when he arrived.

Nothing.

How has coming here to Kesennuma and getting invovled with the recovery, how's that changed you as a person?

How's that affected your just personality and way of thinking?

Helping a town.

With Kesennuma's concert approaching,  tonight Ken's rehearsing with popular

singer songwriter Ami Ozakii who will be  performing alongside him on stage.

He's certainly a man of many talents, he can sing,  he can dance, hell he can even play the trumpet.

But of course it's the acting  career that Ken is best known for.

Ken's career took off in the 1980s when he  became a household name for his role playing

the legendary historic figure Date Masamune and  in 1985 he appeared in my favourite Japanese movie  

Juzo Itami's Tampopo, a comedy delving into  Japan's obsession with food. But it wasn't  

until 2003 when he rose to international stardom  with his universally acclaimed performance as

Lord Katsumoto in The Last Samurai alongside Tom  Cruise for which he was nominated an Academy Award

and after a stint on Broadway and in the West End  performing in The King and I, Ken was nominated

for a prestigious Tony Award in 2015 and with a  starring role in the hotly anticipated HBO series

Tokyo Vice kicking off in April, Ken's certainly  not showing any signs of slowing down any time soon.

For a Japanese actor, one of the few actors  who's actually left Japan and had a really successful career

What keeps you so motivated, to sort of  push and keep going and have this incredible career.

I started working in foreign country films or something in 2003

- The Last Samurai

Yeah I was 42 years old.

From there I did

Inception, Letters from Iwo Jima or something, then I was over 50 years old

I don't have the target, I don't have the goal  I don't have the purpose really

Because I had a small target, like a tiny road, but then some Producers and Directors

give me offers for a great  Broadway Show or something

And I think "What I can't do it, I cannot do it". I cannot imagine about standing on the Broadway Show  

Did you decide straight away when you were asked to do "The King and I" did you say yes?

Or did you say no first?

The first time I heard about that I thought I'd never do that

I mean you've had one hell of a career is there  a particular film you look back to that you're

particularly sort of proud of you you really think  wow i'm really glad I did that?

I cannot compare.

Maybe being over 40 years old I feel about it like it's one piece of one album

I make the some kind of album then in my whole life, I have so many albums

One of my favourite films, probably my favourite  film that you've been in is Itami Juzo's "Tampopo"

I think it's just such a wild film. - I was 23 years old I think

Back then when you were young, it's strange  watching you in Tampopo and seeing you now

how far you've come. When you look back  at that time in Tampopo do you think you'd  

ever have a career like this? Did you think  I'll travel the world and I'll be in all these films?

I'm really glad because I always feel like not enough people have seen it.

I think it's such a unique film. Do you watch many films in your free time?

Are you going to watch the new James Bond film?

I've not yet. But maybe next week. And last week...

It's been reassuring hearing that even one of  Japan's most acclaimed actors gets nervous on  

stage from time to time and the next day with the  crowds appearing and Kesennuma's festival underway  

Ken's about to find himself performing  once again in front of the entire town.

Well here we are guys in beautiful sunny  Kesennuma, today the festival's underway

thousands of people here and Ken Watanabe is about  to come on stage with his band to perform in front

of a very excited crowd. It's not something  you see every day -Ken Watanabe performing. Here he is.

Watching Ken perform in front of the  cheering crowd feels like the culmination  

of an incredible week spent together in Kesennuma discovering what happens when a celebrity chooses  

to become actively involved in rebuilding a  community not just for a day or a week but for  

an entire decade and with our time together  almost up there's just one last thing that needs to be done.

I've said for many years, the day I met Ken Watanabe and had a coffee would be the day I leave japan because that's

the ultimate goal right, I've completed Japan.

Oh my god. - This is my dream.

Inside my dream. - I don't want to see, I don't want to know

Thank you so much - It's still spinning 

It's still spinning. Finish the video now.