(at around 1h 27 mins) Light can briefly be seen reading Jenseits von Gut und Böse (English: Beyond Good and Evil) by the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The basic concept of the book is that good and evil are not absolute, but rather social constructions and thus have different meanings varying from society to society.
(at around 5 mins) One of the criminals who dies in his prison cell near the beginning of the film is reading the novel Bye Bye Jupiter (1984) (which was the source of the film of the same name).
The character of Light Yagami is played by Tatsuya Fujiwara. Fujiwara is most famous for his role in Battle Royale (2000).