Tiger Tanaka is a fictional character in the James Bond novel and film series. Introduced in the novel You Only Live Twice, Tanaka is a former kamikaze pilot who became the head of the Japanese Secret Service during the American occupation of Japan.

Tiger Tanaka and Kissy Suzuki in ‘You Only Live Twice’.

Introduced to Bond by Dikko Henderson, the two negotiate for British access to the Japanese intelligence feed on the Soviet Union. In exchange for the data, Tanaka compels Bond to undertake the assassination of a foreign botanist named Doctor Shatterhand, who turns out to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld undercover. Tanaka personally takes charge of Bond’s training for the mission, instructing him in Japanese customs and enrolling him in a ninja training school.

Tanaka is a womanizer who has been married three times. He is stoically bitter about the influence of American culture in his country, decrying it as the price of defeat.

Tanaka’s physical description and personality are based on the Japanese writer Torao “Tiger” Saito, whom Fleming met in Tokyo while researching the Far East for a series of travel articles, later published as Thrilling Cities. Many of the descriptions of Japanese customs in YOLT come from Fleming’s conversations with Saito.

In the film version, Tanaka aids Bond in finding and defeating Ernst Stavro Blofeld, using a team of ninja-like warriors to invade the villain’s lair in an inactive volcano. He is portrayed by Tetsuro Tamba.

Tanaka is featured in Raymond Benson’s latest book The Man with the Red Tattoo, in which he has retired from the Japanese Secret Service but still retains authority as a director emeritus. He has also developed heart disease, and suffers a heart attack shortly before the climax of the novel, but survives.