Shin Koyamada

On June 11th, 2000, Koyamada moved to the United States alone for the first time to pursue his American dreams. To improve his English, he first enrolled in the ESL program at the University of California, Riverside as an international student and has lived with a host family in a homestay for a month.[3] Later that year, Koyamada moved to Hollywood alone, not knowing anyone, having no place to stay, and not knowing how to speak English. To continue his international education, he enrolled at Los Angeles City College as a full-time international student where he began his general education and taking intensive acting lessons.

To gain his acting experience in the beginning, Koyamada begun auditioning for many commercials and working in a number of student films and music videos. In 2000, Koyamada booked the very first three national commercials he auditioned for such as Disneyland, Apple Computer and JC Penney. In 2001, Koyamada choreographed and performed martial arts forms and stage combat in a production of Shakespeare's Coriolanus for the Knightsbridge Theater in Pasadena. Koyamada also made a brief guest appearance on Power Rangers Wild Force. Koyamada co-starred in the award-winning American short comedy film A Ninja Pays Half My Rent, which he played Black Ninja.

Koyamada's debut feature film role was in Warner Bros.' blockbuster epic film The Last Samurai (2003), co-starring as Nobutada, a son of Ken Watanabe's character Katsumoto and a young Samurai who befriends Algren, a captured American soldier played by Tom Cruise. His heroic character Nobutada became such an international icon for his famous dialogues "Jolly Good" and "No Mind". Koyamada was ranked number 1 under age 25 on IMDb's Star Meter when the film was just released. The film grossed a total of $456 million at the box office and was well-received upon its release and nominated for several awards, including four Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and two National Board of Review Awards.[4] While filming, he added Kyūdō (Japanese Archery) and Yabusame to his repertoire.[5]In mid 2002, Koyamada accidentally found the casting call online for the movie, submitted himself to a casting director in Los Angeles, auditioned for his role twice and eventually landed his American dream in the movie. At that time, he was just an international college student and a U.S. national martial arts champion.

In early 2005, Koyamada and his team pitched a new action movie to Disney Channel executives, with Koyamada performing backflips and Shaolin Kung Fu double broadsword, his U.S. national championship winning form, to them on the top floor of the Disney Channel building in Burbank. The following day, Koyamada was offered the starring role in Disney Channel's Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006) opposite Brenda Song, which become one of the highest rated original movies on the channel. It also received the highest rating in the history of Disney Channel Japan. The film also broke records in the United Kingdom and Europe making Disney Channel the highest rated kids channel in Europe.[6] From 2006 to 2008, Koyamada was a regular in the Disney Channel Games for three seasons until it ended. The series was filmed at the Disney World in Florida and supported various charities including Starlight Children's Foundation.

In late 2005, Koyamada and his wife founded an American production company Shinca Entertainment to initially produce American movies and shows. Shinca has developed and produced a television and live streaming talk show named The Nia Lyte Show (2006). In Japan, Koyamada starred in and executive produced the Japanese two-hour documentary film Wine Road of the Samurai (2006), nationally distributed by Tokyo Broadcasting System throughout the country.[7]

In 2007, Koyamada also starred in and produced the action adventure 30-minute short film Good Soil, in which He portrayed a Christian Samurai leader who stood for his faith.[8] Koyamada next appeared in the 20th Century Fox drama Constellation (2007), directed by Jordan Walker-Pearlman.[9]

In 2009, Koyamada has partnered with Travis Moore, an illustrator DC Comics' Freedom Fighters, Justice Society of America, Wonder Woman, Titan, The Green Team, Sword of Sorcery, and Nia Lyte to form comics company called Laizen Comics to develop and publish comics in early 2009.[10][11][12][13] Koyamada, Moore and Lyte created The Dreamhoppers (2010), an action adventure about the supernatural powers given to certain people known as Dreamhoppers. The comics was published and distributed by Laizen Comics to independent comic book stores throughout the United States .[14]

Koyamada continued to explore working in Japan and then starred in the two-hour Japanese major stage production Ai No Shizuku, hosted by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs and Okayama Prefecture government during the 25th National Cultural Festival in his hometown Okayama, Japan. The play was attended by then-Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito and a number of senior elected government officials and nationally televised through NHK.[15]

Koyamada starred in and produced the American film titled Heart of the Dragon (2013), directed by Jeff McDonald and written by James West II from Moesha and The Proud Family.[16] Koyamada produced a multi-part television series and web series comprising Spirit Fashion Show (2013), Spirit Art Show (2013), Spirit Music Show (2013), Spirit Love Show (2013) and Spirit Earth Show (2014), with producers Claudia Hallowell and Nia Lyte and distributed by Spirit Show Network.[17]

Koyamada has starred and produced a new American feature film The Yokai King based on the famous Japanese supernatural folklore characters. The film was entirely shot in Okinawa, Japan and expected to be released internationally in 2021.

Through Shinca Entertainment, Koyamada and his American partners have developed and produced a number of other original American comic book series and digital stickers for a mobile chatting system. In addition, he has been in ongoing development of numerous action films, Japanese-style animation and mobile games, some of which are based on his original comic book series.[18] [19]

In the United States, Koyamada has been appointed for U.S. Department of State Cultural Envoy and Japan-America Society Southern California Special Ambassador. In Japan, Koyamada has been appointed as several goodwill ambassadorships by multiple local governments and NGOs such as Tourism Ambassador by Okayama Prefecture then-Governor Masahiro Ishii in 2010, Tourism Ambassador by Kyoto Mayor Daisaku Kadokawa in 2012[20][21] and 2020 Tokyo Olympics Karate Ambassador by Japan Karate Federation Chairman Takashi Sasagawa in 2016.

Koyamada speaking at Seinan Gakuin University in Fukuoka in Japan

Having a background coming to the United States as an international student himself, he is committed to cultivate youth leaderships and inspire youth students to study abroad by sharing his story of pursuing a higher education and his dreams. Through Koyamada International Foundation (KIF), his first speaker's engagement was at California State University, Monterey Bay in 2008.

In Japan, Koyamada first was invited by the U.S. Embassy Tokyo in 2011 to lecture hundreds of Japanese youth students in five different cities to promote international education throughout Japan.[22][23] Following the educational tour, Koyamada went back to continue his efforts to empower tens of thousands of Japanese high school and undergrad students to cultivate their global mindsets and leaderships through KIF Japan in partnerships with a number of embassies, local governments, universities, high schools, board of education and nonprofit organizations. In 2013 and 2014, Koyamada has appointed his close friends Dylan Sprouse and Cole Sprouse as KIF's International Ambassadors. With Dylan and Cole, Koyamada visited 10 different prefectures of Japan in 10 days for KIF Japan's US-Japan Discovery Tour to empower thousands of youth to promote youth leaderships, the importance of pursuing a higher education and mutual understanding among young people of Japan and the United States through a series of lectures and cross-cultural events. During the tour, they shared their activities to millions of followers and fans in their social medias. Since 2015, Koyamada has given lectures at both private and national universities in Japan, including Kansai University, Ritsumeikan University, Kindai University, Seinan Gakuin University, Okayama University, Okinawa International University and Miyazaki Municipal University.

In late 2019, Mount Kenya University, a top private university in Nairobi, Kenya in partnerships with KIF Kenya has organized his lecture event for their over 300 undergrad students.[24] In February 2020, Embassy of the United States, Moscow and its consulates invited him to speak to over 3,000 Russian students and youth as a main keynote speaker to empower them to pursue their dreams and shared his story and experience studying in the United States as an international student and achieving his dreams.[25]

Since 2008, Koyamada has been assisting homeless people in Los Angeles through KIF's program in providing foods and drinks. In response to Great East Japan earthquake, Koyamada raised substantial funds through fundraising efforts in California and donated them all to three affected Prefectures of Japan through KIF to aid the victims. In addition, Koyamada shipped 20-foot containers filled with basic necessities directly to the victims from Los Angeles.[26] Since then, he has assisted a number of natural disasters, including 2018 Japan floods.

In July 2017, Koyamada became the first Japanese National Board of Directors of Sister Cities International (SCI) since its founding at a White House Summit on Citizen Diplomacy convened by 34th U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. SCI has grown to be the oldest and largest global network of volunteer citizen diplomats, comprising over 2,000 communities in 145 countries. As an At-Large National Board member, he has taken leading global initiatives on engaging global youth, bringing diversity, growing visibility, fostering bilateral relationships with Asian countries, cultivating sustainable partnerships with United Nations, governments and international NGOs, supporting local sister city exchanges and promoting a world peace through citizen diplomacy. In 2019, he created the Japan-Texas Leaderships Symposium, a bilateral business and cultural event hosted by SCI, Koyamada International Foundation and City of San Antonio. At SCI, Koyamada has been serving as an Executive Committee member since July 2019.

By 16, Koyamada began to study Keishinkan Karate every weekend in Okayama, Japan. After six months of training in 1998, he was asked by his Sensei Yoshii to compete at a national Karate Championship in Nagano, where he was the only beginner holding a rank of White Belt in a high school division and had to fight against Black Belts competitors. In the following year, he fought again at the same championship and unexpectedly won against a winner from the previous year who participated from the United States, but lost in the following match. Right after the championship, he was awarded to his first Degree Black Belt skipped directly from a White Belt with only a year and half training.[27]

After relocating to Los Angeles in September 2000, he used to give private lessons in Karate to college students for a few months. In the meanwhile, he began training in Northern Shaolin Kung Fu with the Harmonious Fist Chinese Athletic Association, commuting a long distance bicycling for an hour each way to its school and coming back home midnight for five days a week. He never missed a class for two straight years and was committed to train for 5 hours a day and 6 days a week. Koyamada specialized in the empty hand form Bot Bo (拔步) and a double broadsword among other 18 Chinese classical weapons in Northern Shaolin.[28] After nine months of training, Koyamada begun competing in six U.S national martial arts competitions in several major cities, including San Diego, Las Vegas, San Francisco and won gold medals in most of them in 2001 and 2002.[29] In 2004, Koyamada was featured on the front cover of a well-known martial arts magazine Black Belt Magazine, one of the oldest titles dedicated to martial arts in the United States.

In 2005, Koyamada earned san-dan (third degree) Black Belt in traditional Keishinkan Karate in Japan. Under Sensei Tadashi Yamashita in Los Angeles, he also begun studying Iaijutsu, a Japanese combative quick-draw sword technique, an art of drawing the Japanese sword, katana, and one of the Japanese koryū martial art disciplines in the education of the classical warrior (bushi).

In the same year, Koyamada was introduced to train in Korean martial arts Tae Kwon Do under a well known Korean Grandmaster inside CBS Studio Center lot in Studio City, where he's trained with Stanley Clarke and other classmates from entertainment industry every other morning. After a year in training, he earned the first degree black belt, and then eventually second degree black belt.[30] In 2007, Koyamada began studying in Korea's Royal Court Martial Arts, a traditional form of self-defense that employs joint locks, grappling, and throwing techniques kicks, punches, and other striking attacks, for which he was certified as a 1st Degree Black Belt after two years in 2009. In 2009, he was invited as a main guest to perform a traditional Japanese swordsmanship at one of the largest Italian martial arts exhibitions Martial Arts Tour held in Nettuno, Italy, with over 2,000 live Italian audience and Italian national television stations broadcasting the event.[31]

In 2010 and 2011, he founded an international martial arts event "United States Martial Arts Festival (USMAF)", held in Redondo Beach, to promote the arts and help educate the next generation to develop self-discipline, self-determination, self-affirmation, self-assertion, self-discovery and self-confidence through martial arts. At USMAF, over 1,000 supporters and fans packed the auditorium to cheer up martial arts performances by different world renowned martial arts masters and youth performers representing different styles such as Karate, Shaolin Kung Fu, Krav Maga, Capoera, MMA, Tae Kwon Do, Shorinji Kempo, American Kenpo, Boxing, Marine Corps Martial Arts Program and others that are originated from the United States, Israel, Japan, South Korea, China, Egypt, Brazil, Thailand and Taiwan. All of the proceeds funded itself and martial arts scholarship program that provides youth and children the necessary funds so they can pursue training in the martial arts as a means to cultivate self-discipline, improve their health, and learn respect, honor and courtesy.

In early 2016, Koyamada was appointed by Japan Karate Federation, an affiliated World Karate Federation that has more than ten million members in 191 countries, as Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics Karate Ambassador as part of an ongoing efforts to include Karate into the additional Olympics Games and to promote Karate internationally. In August 2016, the International Olympic Committee approved Karate as an Olympic sport for the first time in the history, beginning at the 2020 Summer Olympics. In 2017, he attended as a special guest for the first "Emperor's Cup and Empress's Cup All Japan Karate Championship" at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo, where then-Emperor Akihito also attened.

In 2005, Koyamada formed Shinca Entertainment in Burbank, an American production company that produces films, shows, American comic books, anime, video games and digital stickers. Since its founding, the company has produced numerous contents, including a well-known comic book series The Dreamhoppers under various brands.

In 2012, Koyamada established Shinca Enterprise, an American consulting firm to initially bridge American startup companies in Japan and South America in various areas. In 2017, the company's clients include from an American startup company to a Japanese Fortune Global 500 in a wide range of businesses such as agriculture, technology, retail, energy, mining, sports, foods and entertainment industries in the United States, Asia and Latin America.[32]