Letters from Iwo Jima
2006 proved to be a productive year for Ninomiya as he became the first artist from Johnny's &amp; Associates to debut in Hollywood. He played a reluctant soldier called Saigo in Clint Eastwood's Academy Award-winner "Letters from Iwo Jima" with Academy Award-nominated actor Ken Watanabe. His performance was praised by many film critics, some of which include "RogerEbert.com" editor Jim Emerson ("thoroughly winning"), Claudia Puig of "USA Today" ("also superb"), James Berardinelli ("another performer worth singling out") and Kirk Honeycutt of "The Hollywood Reporter" ("just terrific"). On January 7, 2007, "New York Times" film critic A. O. Scott listed Ninomiya as an ideal Oscar candidate for Best Supporting Actor. On October 24, 2006, a couple months after returning from filming "Letters from Iwo Jima" in the United States, he debuted as a voice actor, lending his voice to main character Black in the Michael Arias animated film "Tekkon Kinkreet".