Takaya Kamikawa, born on May 7, 1965, in Hachioji, Tokyo, is a Japanese actor working across stage, film, and television. He finished Hachioji-Kita high school and studied economics at Chuo University, where he performed with a small touring theatre group, before leaving without graduating to act full time with the company Caramel Box. In 1995 he took the lead role of Lu Yixin in NHK's drama Daichi no Ko; the original novelist Toyoko Yamasaki had wanted Masahiro Motoki, but the demanding shooting schedule in China ruled him out, and a staff member found the then-unknown Kamikawa in a magazine, a choice Yamasaki later endorsed. He went on to headline the 2006 NHK Taiga drama Kōmyō ga Tsuji as Yamauchi Kazutoyo.
