Cyril Coppini

Originally from Nice, Cyril started learning Japanese in high school. Just like Obélix, he fell into the cauldron when he was young, and the rest is history…

In the early 1990s, he attended the INALCO in Paris. During his university studies, he won a scholarship from Shinshū University, which allowed him to spend a year in the city of Matsumoto. He admits to having shamelessly burned that money doing karaoke and going to izakayas (Japanese tapas bars). 

In 1997, he settled permanently in Japan (Fukuoka, Tokyo and Osaka).

For more than 20 years, he was in charge of music, contemporary dance and theater programming for the Institut français du Japon, the cultural center affiliated to the French Embassy in Japan.

As a Rakugo artist since 2011, he regularly travels France and the French-speaking world to help people discover this still unknown art form in French through shows, workshops as well as presentations in schools. He also performs in Japan, Thailand, New Zealand, Turkey…

In 2022, he joined the English Rakugo Association of Japan.

In 2023, he performed Rakugo for the first time in the long-established venue of l’Olympia in Paris (which is like New York City’s Carnegie Hall) as part of an event around the publication of a manga on this subject, Akane-banashi.

Cyril also translates manga, such as Le Rakugo, à la vie, à la mort (Descending Stories – nominated for the 2022 Konishi Prize for the translation of Japanese manga into French), Case Closed/Detective Conan, Criminal Apprentice, La Grande Traversée (The Great Passage) and more, in addition to several video games among which Danganronpa V3 and Dark Souls RPG.

He regularly performs on television (NHK World) and on Japanese FM band radio.