It was announced that Japanese star Ken Watanabe signed up for the film in May, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

Watanabe joins a cast that includes Leonardo DiCaprio, Ellen Page, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard, Cillian Murphy, and Michael Caine.

The Oscar-nominated Japanese actor is reportedly playing the movie’s villain, who is blackmailing DiCaprio.

Watanabe became well known to American audiences for playing tragic hero characters, such as General Tadamichi Kuribayashi in Letters from Iwo Jima and Lord Katsumoto in The Last Samurai.

Watanabe previously worked with Nolan in Batman Begins as Ra’s al Ghul’s decoy.

He also played The Chairman in Memoirs of a Geisha.

Inception is slated to be released in July 2010.