Rikiya Otaka was born 27th August 1991 in Tokyo.In 1997, when he was only six, he was chosen out of many young boys to play the part of the little seven year old Yoichi Asakawa in Ringu (1998). Today, he is (alongside _Hiroyuki Sanada_ who played Ryuji Takayama in 'Ringu') the most credited and popular male character in the entire 'Ringu' series. He resorted his role as Yoichi a year after the first sequel 'Spiral' was a failure in the cinemas. In Ringu 2 (1999), his character was the supporting male actor, so he was working twice as hard this time, but enjoyed every moment. It was fun playing Yoichi again.In 2000, he was doing extras work mainly, and even made a notable appearance in the hit TV series _"Karmen Rider Agito" (2001)_. He then once again joined Hideo Nakata for a separate piece of work when he played Yuuchi in _Sleeping Bride (2000)_. He has also made small appearance in Kuroe (2001) and Umi wa miteita (2002).People were beginning to notice Rikiya Otaka. He the starred in a drama movie _Catharisis (2003)_ as the youngest brother of a family, angry at his elder brother for dividing the family. He then starred as the main players best friend in BBK Basketball Kids. In 2004 and 2005, he was on the the large budget, drama-history film Kita no zeronen (2005), playing the Mamiya's son.