Japan's Koji Yakusho won best actor at Cannes on Saturday for "Perfect Days" by German director Wim Wenders, a touching tale about a Tokyo toilet cleaner.

Yakusho, 67, became the first Japanese actor to win the prize since Yuya Yagira in 2004, who won it at age 14 for "Nobody Knows."

Yakusho appears in most scenes of "Perfect Days" as a mysterious, bookish man without friends, content to spend his spare time reading, watering his plants, taking photos and listening to songs on his car stereo.