Shun Oguri Plays Teacher in New Stage Play ‘Inokorigumi’; He Returns to Stage with 1st Starring Role in 3 Years

By Misako Takeda / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

9:30 JST, February 20, 2026

With his emotional acting skills in dramas, movies and stage plays, Shun Oguri continues to show why he is one of the leading actors of his generation. Now, he is maturing as a performer, transitioning from a trendy actor to one with depth.

The stage play “Inokorigumi” (The remaining group), in which Oguri plays a lead role for the first time in three years, opened in Tokyo on Jan. 30. Written and directed by playwright and director Koki Mitani, this stage play is attracting much attention. The Yomiuri Shimbun interviewed Oguri ahead of the opening.

A teacher’s desk was set up in front of the blackboard and desks and chairs of different heights were placed here and there. The rehearsal hall looked like a school classroom, bringing back memories of my school days.

Oguri has played various roles in TV dramas, such as the beautiful son of a distinguished family and a regent in the Kamakura shogunate. On stage, he has been a Roman emperor and a swordsman defeated by his rival in the Battle of Ganryujima. Many of his characters so far have been “characters that I never would have been able to perform based only on my own experience,” according to Oguri. In this latest performance, he acts as an elementary school teacher.

The play depicts a so-called “monster-parent” mother coming to the classroom after school while the vice principal and teachers wait for her. Oguri plays a young teacher who is asked by the vice principal, played by Kazuyuki Aijima, to listen to the mother, played by Rinko Kikuchi. Her child is in a class that his fellow female teacher, played by Kami Hiraiwa, is in charge of. “He is a shrewd person who wants to avoid trouble. He has his reasons for wanting to leave early, but the circumstances do not allow him to,” Oguri said.

It is a very realistic role. He finds himself in a completely different world from those he has experienced on stage so far. Oguri has embodied characters in dramatic stage plays such as “Caligula,” “As You Like It” and “Musashi,” all directed by renowned director Yukio Ninagawa, as well as the theater company Gekidan Shinkansen’s masterpiece “Seven Souls in the Skull Castle.”

“In my previous roles, I had to go to places that are different from reality, but this time I am playing a role that is, in a way, connected to my own life. This is the first time I’m having this experience, which makes the role more interesting,” he said lightly.

Socially conscious with laughs

Furthermore, it is the first time in 13 years for Oguri to act in a stage play directed by the playwright himself. “There is a world that Mr. Mitani had in mind while he was writing the story. If that is the average, we have to aim higher, which I find difficult every single day. I try to find movements and reactions that are different from what I had imagined,” Oguri said, revealing what he keeps in mind in the rehearsal room.

The stage play is a socially conscious piece about “monster parents,” meaning people who make self-centered and unreasonable demands on schools or other places. It also has elements of comedy, which is one of the best parts of Mitani’s works. “There is no big event in the stage play but it is a story filled with the good and the bad of human beings,” he said. “I think the audience relates to different characters in the play. Also, it is a rich theatrical experience to think, ‘If it were me, how would I think in this moment?’”

‘Only stage plays’

It has been three years since Oguri appeared in the stage play “King John.”

“Personally, I want to do only stage plays,” he said, passionately expressing his love for theater. “The rehearsals are a process of trial and error but we are able to try many different things while checking every single aspect together. I love stage plays because the audience gets to see what we have built.”

In 2025, Oguri was very active as an actor, appearing in such works as “Frontline,” a movie about doctors on a luxury cruise ship that sees an outbreak of a new coronavirus, and the Netflix drama series “Romantics Anonymous,” his first love story in a long time.

At the end of 2025, he turned 43. As he gets older, he sometimes wonders how many more productions he will be able to work on with a healthy and strong body. He says that he is asked to play more dignified and profound characters than before. “I would like to choose jobs that require hard work and effort to achieve,” he said.

“Inokorigumi” will be performed at the IMM Theater in Tokyo until Feb. 23; the Ryutopia Niigata City Performing Arts Center in Niigata from March 6 to 8; the Hyogo Performing Arts Center in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, from March 12 to 15; the Toyohashi Arts Theatre PLAT in Toyohashi, Aichi Prefecture, from March 20 to 22; and the Sky Theater MBS in Osaka from March 26 to 29.

Shun Oguri

Oguri was born on Dec. 26, 1982. His works include TV dramas “GTO” and “Hana yori Dango” (Boys over flowers), and movies “Crows — Episode 0” and “Godzilla vs. Kong.” A live-action series “Human Vapor” based on the tokusatsu sci-fi movie “The Human Vapor” is scheduled to be distributed on Netflix.