Masato Yamanouchi

Yamanouchi was born Mikio Yamauchi (山内 幹雄) on April 3, 1929 in Tokyo.^[1] He attended Shiba Junior High School,^{[citation needed]} Waseda University School of Law, and Kamakura Academia's theatre program.^[1] While at Waseda, he founded Jiyu Butai, a theatre troupe.^{[citation needed]}

In 1945, Yamanouchi joined the NHK Tokyo Broadcasting Company, where he hosted a radio show and debuted as a voice actor in Fuefuki Dōji as Kirino Kojiro.^[2][1] His early training for voice roles centered on dramatic reading, which he initially performed in coffee shops.^[1][4] In 1949, he and linguist Haruhiko Kindaichi started the Broadcast Expression Education Center, where they worked on preserving the Edo language^{[dubious – discuss][citation needed]}. They began accepting students for dramatic reading, making them the first recitation school in Japan.^[5][6][1][4] The center was supported by the NHK's Cultural Fund. After leaving NHK in 1977, Yamanouchi worked for K Production, then became a freelancer.^{[citation needed]}

In 1975, he received the NHK Broadcasting Operation Director's Award and the Arts Festival Award for Excellence in the drama category.^[1]

Yamanouchi died on April 7, 2003 in Meguro, the same Tokyo ward in which he was born, due to complications from lung cancer.^[1][2][6] He was survived by his widow, Yasuko.^[6]