Kazuo (カズオ, かずお) is a masculine Japanese
given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that person from the other members of a group (typically a fa ...
.
Possible spellings
It has several written forms, and the meaning depends on the characters used (usually
kanji, but sometimes
hiragana). Common forms include:
* 一雄: first son, first in leadership/excellence
* 一夫: first son
* 一男: first man/male
* 和夫: harmonious/peaceful man
* 和男: harmonious/peaceful man
* かずお (
hiragana)
* カズオ (
katakana)
People with the name
*, Japanese sport wrestler
*
Kazuo Aoki
was a bureaucrat and cabinet minister in the Empire of Japan, serving as Minister of Finance, and Minister of Greater East Asia.
Biography
Aoki was born to a farming family in Sarashina District, Nagano prefecture (now part of the city of N ...
, Japanese government minister during the
Second Sino-Japanese War, and into
World War II
*, Japanese shogi player
*
Kazuo Chiba (born 1940),
aikido
*
Kazuo Harada
(birthdate unknown, died December 19, 1998) was an anime producer, audio director, and sound effects director in Japan who has worked with Studio Comet, NAS, and Tsuchida Production.
Works
*'' Ashita Tenki ni Naare'' (TV) (producer)
*''Dame ...
(died 1998), anime producer, audio director, and sound effects director
*
Kazuo Hirai
is a Japanese businessman. He is best known as the former chairman of Sony Corporation, serving from April 2018 to June 2019, as well as president and CEO from April 2012 to April 2018. He also served as a board member of Sony Computer Entertain ...
(平井一夫, born 1964), President/CEO of Sony Computer
* Kazuo Endo,
Kobe earthquake survivor
*
Kazuo Hashimoto, late Japanese inventor of
Caller ID and the telephone
answering machine, including the
ansafone.
*, Japanese actor and voice actor
*
(1947–2020), accounting scholar, president of Kwansei Gakuin University
*
Kazuo Hirotsu
was a Japanese novelist, literary critic and translator active in the Shōwa period.
Early life
Hirotsu was born in the Ushigome neighborhood Tokyo as the second son of the noted novelist Hirotsu Ryurō, whose pupils included Kafū Nagai.'' T ...
(1891–1968), Japanese novelist and literary critic active in the
Shōwa period of Japan
*
Kazuo Ichinohe (born 1941), Japanese voice actor (stage name Shin Aomori)
*, Japanese aikidoka
*
Kazuo Inamori (born 1932), Japanese businessman
*, Japanese cyclist
*
Kazuo Ishiguro (石黒一雄, born 1954), British author
*, Japanese table tennis player
*, Japanese high jumper
*
Kazuo Kitagawa
was the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Japanese Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi.
Born in Ikuno-ku, Osaka, Kitagawa graduated from Faculty of Law, Soka University and became a lawyer. In 1990, he was elected to the Hous ...
(北側一雄, born 1953), Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Japanese Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi
*, Japanese diver
*
Kazuo Koike
was a prolific Japanese manga writer ( gensakusha), novelist, screenwriter, lyricist and entrepreneur. He is best known for his violent, artful ''seinen'' manga, notably ''Lone Wolf and Cub'' (with Goseki Kojima, 1970–6), '' Lady Snowblood'' ...
(小池一夫, born 1936), manga artist
*
Kazuo Komizu
is a Japanese film director from Miyagi Prefecture, mainly focusing on violent sex and gore films.
Biography
He has a small following outside Japan thanks to a couple of notorious films:''Bijo no harawata, Entrails of a Beauty'' and ''Entrails o ...
(born 1946), Japanese film director
*
Kazuo Kubokawa
was a Japanese astronomer, who, together with astronomer Okuro Oikawa, co-discovered the Mars-crosser asteroid 1139 Atami in 1929.
During the Japanese period in Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in Ea ...
(窪川一雄, 1903–1943), astronomer
*, Japanese actor, voice actor and theatre director
*, Japanese ice hockey player
*
Kazuo Matsui (松井稼頭央, born 1975), baseball player
*
Kazuo Misaki (born 1976), Japanese professional mixed martial arts fighter and former
judoka
is an unarmed modern Japanese martial art, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyclopedia Nipponica, "Judo"). ...
*
Kazuo Miyagawa (宮川一夫, 1908–1999), cinematographer
*
Kazuo Mizutani
was chief of staff to Takeshi Mori, commander of the First Imperial Guards Division, at the end of World War II.
Mizutani was in his office, listening to Col. Masataka Ida's explanation of a plot to prevent Japan's surrender, when Gen. Mori wa ...
(水谷和夫), Chief of Staff of Japanese Imperial Guard during the close of World War II
*
Kazuo Nakamura
Kazuo Nakamura was a Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor (born Vancouver October 13, 1926; died Toronto April 9, 2002) and a founding member of the Toronto-based Painters Eleven group in the 1950s. Among the first major Japanese Canadian arti ...
(1926–2002), Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor
*, Japanese basketball coach
*
Kazuo Nakanishi
was briefly the leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate in the chaotic years of the Yama-Ichi War. He was also the founder and 1st ''kumicho'' of the Nakanishi-gumi.
Nakanishi accepted the temporary leadership position after the assassina ...
(1922–2003), briefly the leader of the
Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate in the chaotic years of the Yama-Ichi War
*, Japanese magazine editor and photography critic
*, Japanese swimmer
*
Kazuo Ohno
was a Japanese dancer who became a guru and inspirational figure in the dance form known as Butoh. He is the author of several books on Butoh, including ''The Palace Soars through the Sky'', ''Dessin'', ''Words of Workshop'', and ''Food for the ...
(1906–2010), Japanese dancer associated with Butoh
*
Kazuo Oka (born 1948), Japanese voice actor
*, Japanese-American professional wrestler
*, Japanese footballer
*, Japanese footballer and manager
*, Japanese racewalker
*
Kazuo Sakamaki (酒巻和男, 1918–1999), first prisoner of war held by the US in World War II
*
Kazuo Sakurada
, better known as Mr. Sakurada, The Dragonmaster, and as the Japanese version of , was a Japanese professional wrestler. He was best known for his work in Stampede Wrestling, National Wrestling Alliance, and World Championship Wrestling. Sakur ...
(1948–2020), known as Mr. Sakurada) retired Japanese professional wrestler
*, Japanese cross-country skier
*, Japanese footballer
*, Japanese sport wrestler
*, Japanese shogi player
*, Japanese mixed martial artist
*
Kazuo Taoka (田岡一雄, 1913–1981), Godfather of the
Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate
*
Kazuo Umezu
is a Japanese manga artist, musician and actor. He is among the most famous authors of horror manga and has been vital for its development since the 1960s.
Life
Umezu was born in Kōya, Wakayama Prefecture, but raised in the mountainous Go ...
(楳図かずお, born 1936), horror manga author
*, Japanese businessman
*
Kazuo Yamada (1912–1991), Japanese conductor
*, Japanese sociologist
Fictional characters
*
Kazuo Tengan
The following is a list of characters from the Spike Chunsoft video game series ''Danganronpa''. The series follows the students of Hope's Peak Academy who are forced into a life of mutual killing by a sadistic teddy bear named Monokuma. The seri ...
, the antagonist of ''
Danganronpa
is a Japanese video game franchise created by Kazutaka Kodaka and developed and owned by Spike Chunsoft (formerly Spike). The series primarily surrounds various groups of apparent high school students who are forced into murdering each other ...
''
* Kazuo Nakano, character in Yudetamago's manga series ''
Kinnikuman''
*
Kazuo Saki, brother of the
Shredder from the 1987–1996 animated TV series, ''
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles''
* Kazuo Uzuki, fictional baseball player that
Topps created as an April Fools' Day hoax
* Kazuo Kiriyama, the primary antagonist of ''
Battle Royale''
* Kazuo Makunoichi, fictional character in ''
Hajime no Ippo
is a Japanese boxing-themed manga series written and illustrated by George Morikawa. It has been serialized by Kodansha in the ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' since October 1989 and collected into 135 ''tankōb ...
''
Video games
* Kazuo or
Go! Sudoku
''Go! Sudoku'' is a sudoku puzzle game for the PlayStation Portable, released in Europe on December 2, 2005 and North America on March 21, 2006. It was later released in Japan on April 27, 2006 under the name of ''Kazuo'' (カズオ), as Nikoli h ...
, is the name for the Japanese release of the
PlayStation Portable
The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...
puzzle game
*
Kazuo Sawa
The series (typically localized as ''River City'') is a video game series started by Technōs Japan. The series is now handled by Arc System Works who purchased all of the intellectual property rights from Technōs' successor, Million Corp. The ...
is the name of a video game composer. Notable works include the soundtracks for ''
The Battle of Olympus
''The Battle of Olympus'' is a 1988 Action role-playing game, action role-playing video game for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America in 1990, in Europe in 1991. A port for the Game Boy was also released.
Plot
''Th ...
'' and ''
Rivercity Ransom
''River City Ransom'', later released as ''Street Gangs'' in the PAL regions, is an open world action role-playing beat 'em up video game originally for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was developed by Technōs Japan and originally release ...
''
* Kazuo Akuji is the leader of the Ronin in the
Saints Row 2
* Kazuo Hoshiro is the leader of the Investigation Team of
Sweet Home (video game)
References
{{given name
Japanese masculine given names