Ichikawa is a Japanese director and screenwriter. He started to work as a producer of TV commercials and in 1981 quit and became an independent director. He shot many commercials and his first feature film was Bu su (1987), drama about a high-school girl who wants to become a geisha. Afterwards he made Tugumi (1990), Byoin de shinu to iu koto (Dying at a Hospital, 1993), Tôkyô kyôdai (The Tokyo Siblings, 1995), Tokyo yakyoku (Tokyo Lullaby, 1997), Osaka monogatari (Osaka Story, 1999), Tokyo Marigold (2001) and Tony Takitani (2004), love story about a boy and a girl who is addicted to shopping. The film is the first feature film adaptation of a story by Haruki Murakami and it won the special jury award and the FIPRESCI award at the Film Festival in Locarno in 2004. Afterwards, he directed the dramas Aogeba tôtoshi (2006), Ashita no watashi no tsukurikata (How to Become Myself, 2007) and the short feature Tokyo rendering kashu (2009).