Issey Ogata was born on 22 February 1952 in Fukuoka as Kazushige Ogata. He grew up in Tokyo, reaching adulthood during the turbulent years of student demonstrations of the early 1970's, when societal values were questioned by the Japanese youth. Not feeling energetic enough to become an activist, he chose instead to pursue acting.

In 1971 Issey met his future director, Yuzo Morita, at an acting school in Shinjuku. Their first work together was the 1973 On-Theatre Jiyuu Gekijou producion of Boxing Elegy directed by Morita. In 1974 Issey joined Morita's Morita School study group, which rehearsed thrice weekly. The group slowly dwindled, until the only members left after a final 1976 production of The Great Ones, which depicted the break-up of a Japanese manzai comic pair, were Issey and Morita.

During the early years Issey supported himself by working as a night janitor and a construction labourer. In 1976 he and Morita acquired official scaffold constructor's licenses, and got full-time construction jobs.

The fact that Issey and Morita could now only rehearse on weekends and the cast consisted of only one person had a strong effect on the creative pair's development. Issey took to conversing with a whole cast of imaginary characters on stage. This honed his pantomime and timing skills, and eventually enabled him to almost instantaneously develop a script based on just character observation and a few hints.

Issey's first two hour single-hander, Twelve rough sketches of a bartender, was performed at an underground theatre in Nakameguro in June of 1980. The play followed the protagonist as he battled boredom from the bar's opening time in the evening until the closing time in the early morning, and set the foundation for Issey's future solo work.

In 1981, Issey entered the Nippon Television's A Comedy Star is Born talent contest. His avoidance of overt jokes and overaction in the predominantly stand-up comedy flavored event enchanted the audience and won him the gold prize. In March of 1982 an Osaka resident who had seen the television contest suggested that Issey perform the skits from the contest in a theatre. This led to a staging of the Issey Ogata Solo Performance at the Orange Room in Osaka, and the first performance of issey's Catalogue of City Life series at the Ikebukuro Studio 200 in Tokyo the following month.

After this, Issey's performances rapidly increased in frequency. They were very unlike the theatre the audience was used to. Though sparse at first (the November 1982 Osaka performance had an audience of only three) the guests who came more than once tended to bring their friends and become regulars. Issey's mailing list, which the company has kept since its very first performances, eventually grew to over 100,000 people.

While Issey was soon performing regularly on both stage and television, both he and Morita initially kept their construction jobs. This was partly due to the fact that it functioned as a source of artistic material, but also partially because the work itself was interesting. The final switch to theatre only came in the summer of 1987, when Morita was diagnosed with osteosarcoma and was no longer able to engage in physical labour.

Morita's illness prompted a cancellation of the October run of Issey's Non-stop Survival series at the Shibuya Jean Jean, where he had made it a habit to announce his new works. Issey continued doing television and movie work while Morita was recuperating, and resumed theatrical performances in March of 1988.

The next few years marked an increase and expansion of activity, including collaborative stage performances with Masao Komatsu and Kaori Momoi. Issey's novels and short stories also began to attract attention. Where the earlier Shinei Ironworking and The Staff Before a Fall School and Melodrama were self-published, the short novel Issey Ogata's Living Catalogue and collection of plays Issey Ogata's A Catalogue of City Life were respectively published by the Asahi Shinbun Press and Hayakawa Shobou Inc.

By 1992 Issey's fan base had become too extensive to be served through his Tokyo performances alone, and he began actively touring Japan. This in turn stimulated demand from the overseas japanese communities, and he made his first overseas performance in new York in 1993 by invitation of the Manhattan Japan Society. The performances were well received, resulting in invitations to Berlin, Paris and Munich in 1994. In a few years, the majority of the international audiences no longer consisted of Japanese expatriots, but of local residents.

The following years have brought a steady increase in international activity, including performances in Europe, the U.S.A and Asia. In 1997 Issey for the first time invited the German group Ars Vitalis to Japan for a tour of Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto. This sparked an international cultural exchange that has continued ever since. The groups invited include Meret Becker and the Fragiles (2003), entourages of theatrical students (2004, 2005), the 17 Hippies (2006), and most recently Max Raabe and the Palast Orchester (2006).

Issey has for some years also hosted writing and acting workshops in various cities throughout Japan, as well as in Germany and Switzerland. The series of eight six-day workshops he was commissioned to hold in 2005 by the District Creative Society of prefectural theatres attracted nearly one thousand participants.

The August 2006 release in Japan of Alexander Sokurov's Solntse (The Sun), in which Issey stars as Emperor Hirohito, was a revolutionary event in the history of Japanese cinema, and has attracted much attention. Besides his excellent performance, what has also brought acclaim is his acceptance of Sokurov's offer, moved by the director's passion and will to create, despite there still being a strong taboo regarding performing the part of an Emperor in Japan.