Jai West
CountryCanada 
GenderMale
BirthdayOct 24, 1976
BiographyJai West (ジェイ・ウェスト; born October 24, 1976) is an actor and poet of French Canadian and Japanese descent born in Vancouver, British Columbia and currently based in Tokyo, Japan.
He is best known for his work on screen as manic Japanese American gangster Lee in Sion Sono's Hazard (2005), a thief grappling with his sexual identity in Gen Sekiguchi's Survive Style 5+ (2004), and portraying Beethoven in the popular Tokyo Gas commercials. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, from 21 Jump Street (1990) to Takashi Shimizu's The Great Horror Family (2004) and Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006). West has released two spoken word poetry albums in Japanese and English under the pseudonym Lotus Chamelion.
In 2018, he became the chairman of Iron Chef Canada.
West is scheduled to publish his debut book, Dragon Man: An Actor’s Transformation, through UK publisher Collective Ink on April 28, 2026, and with a North American edition to follow through Simon & Schuster on May 5, 2026. The memoir chronicles his life in Tokyo as a half-Japanese actor while exploring themes of self-discovery, resilience, and creativity through the lens of Eastern and Western philosophical traditions.
Biography from the Wikipedia article Jai West. Licensed under CC-BY-SA. Full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
He is best known for his work on screen as manic Japanese American gangster Lee in Sion Sono's Hazard (2005), a thief grappling with his sexual identity in Gen Sekiguchi's Survive Style 5+ (2004), and portraying Beethoven in the popular Tokyo Gas commercials. He has appeared in numerous films and television series, from 21 Jump Street (1990) to Takashi Shimizu's The Great Horror Family (2004) and Takashi Miike's Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006). West has released two spoken word poetry albums in Japanese and English under the pseudonym Lotus Chamelion.
In 2018, he became the chairman of Iron Chef Canada.
West is scheduled to publish his debut book, Dragon Man: An Actor’s Transformation, through UK publisher Collective Ink on April 28, 2026, and with a North American edition to follow through Simon & Schuster on May 5, 2026. The memoir chronicles his life in Tokyo as a half-Japanese actor while exploring themes of self-discovery, resilience, and creativity through the lens of Eastern and Western philosophical traditions.
Biography from the Wikipedia article Jai West. Licensed under CC-BY-SA. Full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
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