Father
During World War II, Miyazaki's father Katsuji was director of Miyazaki Airplane, owned by his brother (Hayao Miyazaki's uncle), which made rudders for A6M Zero fighter planes. During this time, Miyazaki drew airplanes and developed a lifelong fascination with aviation, a penchant that later manifested as a recurring theme in his films.
Mother
Miyazaki's mother was a voracious reader who often questioned socially accepted norms. Miyazaki later said that he inherited his questioning and skeptical mind from her. His mother underwent treatment for spinal tuberculosis from 1947 until 1955, and so the family moved frequently. Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro is set in that time period and features a family whose mother is similarly afflicted.
European Authors
A number of Western authors have influenced Miyazaki's work, including Ursula K. Le Guin, Lewis Carroll and Diana Wynne Jones. Miyazaki confided to Le Guin that Earthsea has been a great influence on all his works, and that he has kept her books on his bedside.
Miyazaki and French writer and illustrator Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) have influenced each other and have become friends as a result of their mutual admiration. Monnaie de Paris held an exhibition of their work titled Miyazaki et Moebius: Deux Artistes Dont Les Dessins Prennent Vie (Two Artists’s Drawings Taking on a Life of Their Own) from December 2004 to April 2005; both artists attended the opening of the exhibition. Moebius also named his daughter Nausicaa after Miyazaki's heroine.
Miyazaki has been deeply influenced by another French writer, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. He illustrated the Japanese covers of Saint-Exupéry's Night Flight (Vol de nuit) and Wind, Sand and Stars (Terre des Hommes), and wrote an afterword for Wind, Sand and Stars.
In an interview broadcast on BBC Choice on July 10 of 2002, Miyazaki cited the British authors Eleanor Farjeon, Rosemary Sutcliff, and Philippa Pearce as influences. The filmmaker has also publicly expressed fondness of Roald Dahl's stories about pilots and airplanes; the image in Porco Rosso of a cloud of dead pilots was inspired by Dahl's They Shall Not Grow Old.
The People that Surround Him
Many of the protagonists in his films are based off of people that he knows and surround him. Sosuke from Ponyo is based off of his son Goro and Chihiro from Spirited Away is based off of his friends daughter. By referencing the characteristics and behaviors of those around him it not only allows him to flesh out the characters much more efficiently but also make them more realistic and believable to the viewer.
Co-Workers and Senpai's
Miyazaki also attributed his inspiration to go into the animation field to the release of The Tale of the White Serpent, considered the first modern anime, in 1958. The Snow Queen, a Soviet animated film, is cited by Miyazaki as one of his earliest inspirations, having motivated him to stay in animation production. Yuriy Norshteyn, a Russian animator, is Miyazaki's friend and praised by him as "a great artist.Norshteyn's Hedgehog in the Fog is cited as one of Miyazaki's favourite animated films.
Miyazaki has long been a fan of the Aardman Studios animation. In May 2006, David Sproxton and Peter Lord, founders of Aardman Studios, visited the Ghibli Museum exhibit dedicated to their works, where they also met Miyazaki.
Foreign Lands
One would notice that the settings of his movies do not correspond with Japan, but rather mirror the European style of architecture and landscapes. He is fascinated by their designs and layouts.