Ryo Yoshizawa

Ryo Yoshizawa (吉沢 亮, Yoshizawa Ryō; born February 1, 1994) is a Japanese actor. His breakthrough roles include Okita Sogo in the Gintama live-action films, King Eisei/Hyou in Kingdom and Sano Manjiro in the Tokyo Revengers (film). He is known for his expressive eyes and natural acting style.^[1] He is also known for his roles in tokusatsu, including his role as Ryusei Sakuta/Kamen Rider Meteor in Kamen Rider Fourze.

Ryo Yoshizawa
吉沢 亮
Yoshizawa at the Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2023
Born	(1994-02-01) February 1, 1994 (age 31) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2009–present
Agent	Amuse Inc.

Early life

Yoshizawa was born on February 1, 1994, in Tokyo, Japan.^[1] His family consists of his mother, father, an older brother, and two younger brothers. Yoshizawa is skilled in second dan in kendo, which he has been practicing for over nine years.^[2]

Career

Yoshizawa won the "Right-on" award at the Amuse National Audition, also known as "Amuse National Audition 2009 THE PUSH! Man," according to a Facebook post in 2009. He competed against 31,514 other applicants. It was said that Yoshizawa's mother who pushed him to join the audition and applied for him by herself.

In the beginning of 2011, Yoshizawa made his entertainment debut in Sign with other amuse actors like Dori Sakurada and Takuya Uehara. In the second half of that year, he starred in Kingyo Club. He went on to portray Ryūsei Sakuta in Kamen Rider Fourze,^[1] making his debut in the seventeenth episode. Yoshizawa was interviewed on his role by Uchūsen, the interview being featured in the 135th issue. Yoshizawa revealed his inspiration behind his character's split personality and his first experience in ADR recording. Yoshizawa compared his character to that of Light Yagami from Death Note. He also watched Bruce Lee films as a reference, as his character frequently performed the trademark kiai of "Howatchā" (ホワッチャーッ) when firing punches or kicks.^[3]

In 2017, he portrayed the role of Shinsengumi 1st Division Captain Okita Sougo in the 2017 live-action film of the popular manga series Gintama, and reprised the role in the sequel, Gintama 2, in 2018.^[4] In 2018 alone, he actively participated in acting, appearing in 8 movies, 2 dramas, and 1 play. Among them, River's Edge, a film of the same name based on Kyoko Okazaki's manga, was submitted to the Panorama section of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival , and appeared on the red carpet at an international film festival for the first time with director Isao Yukisada and actress Fumi Nikaido. In addition, for this work, he won the Best New Actor Award at the 10th TAMA Film Festival, the Best New Actor Award at the 40th Yokohama Film Festival, and the Best New Actor Award at the 42nd Japan Academy Awards.

In NHK's 100th serial morning drama, Natsuzora, which aired from April 2019, Yoshizawa played the role of Yamada Tenyo, a character based on the real-life Kanda Nissho, a childhood friend of the protagonist Natsu and a Hokkaido painter. He was selected through an audition of over 2,500 people, and as a leading and supporting actor who has a great influence on the life of the main character, he gave a passionate performance and beautifully portrayed the life of a local painter who loved the soil and lived buried in the soil with transparent acting reminiscent of the great nature of Hokkaido. Since the airing of the 23rd week, in which his character Tenyo last appears, 'Tenyo-kun' has appeared in real-time trends on Twitter, to the point where people are suffering from 'Tenyo-kun aftereffects'. His excellent performance in Natsuzora earned him the honor of the 2019 Elan d'or Awards for Rookie of the Year.

In July 2019, it was announced that Yoshizawa had been selected to play the main character Shibusawa Eiichi in NHK's 60th taiga drama, Reach Beyond the Blue Sky,^[5] which is scheduled to air from February until December 2021. Yoshizawa is the first Heisei-born actor to play the lead role in taiga drama, he was selected through an offer from NHK and it was said that there were many recommendations from the production team who worked with him on Natsuzora.

Yoshizawa also attempted voice acting for the first time, performing two roles in his first attempt at Super Peace Busters' new work, Her Blue Sky. With this work, Yoshizawa attended the Sitges Film Festival, where the work was submitted, along with director Tatsuyuki Nagai and actress Riho Yoshioka. He also voiced original character, Rody Soul, for third movie version of the animation series My Hero Academia, which was released on August 6, 2021. Yoshizawa alongside actress Aoi Miyazaki starred in a Netflix mystery & romance comedy movie, In Love and Deep Water or Crazy Cruise, that premiered in November 2023 which Yuji Sakamoto was the screenwriter.

From October 2022, Yoshizawa took on his first lead role in Getsuku (Golden Time) drama, PICU: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit,^[6] playing the role of Takeshiro Shikota. It is also his first doctor character since his debut and the average viewer rating of the drama was 8.5%. He reprised his role for the special drama and spin-off of PICU: Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, which aired in April 2024.

Yoshizawa was questioned by the police after an incident on December 30, 2024, where he had drunkenly entered a neighbor's apartment without permission to use their restroom. As a result, Asahi Beer dropped their endorsement deal with him and Shochiku delayed Baban Baban Ban Vampire indefinetly.^[7][8] On the other hand, Iris Ohyama announced that it would continue its contract with him, earning praise online.^[9]

Yoshizawa stars in Lee Sang-il's 2025 film Kokuho.^[10] He plays Kikuo Tachibana, a yakuza's son who performs as a woman in kabuki. The film is based on the novel by Shuichi Yoshida and tells the story of two men from different backgrounds who become rivals in kabuki, one a yakuza's son and the other a kabuki heir, in postwar Japan. Kokuho (lit. 'National Treasure') has been officially selected for the 57th Directors' Fortnight at the 78th Cannes Film Festival.^[11]

Following Natsuzora, Yoshizawa was announced to join another morning drama, The Ghost Writer's Wife,^[12] as Yuichi Nishikori, an English teacher who will have a major impact on the lives of the heroines Toki Matsuno (Akari Takaishi) and Heaven (Tommy Bastow). His second morning drama is scheduled to air in the second half of 2025.

Filmography

TV series

Year	Title	Role	Other notes	Ref.
2011	Sign	Yūki Nagi
	Kingyo Club	Shō Yanagihashi
2011–12	Kamen Rider Fourze	Ryūsei Sakuta/Kamen Rider Meteor		[2]
2012	Please Do Something	Keita Yabe	Episode 2
2013	3-in-1 House Share	Negishi
	Bussen	Tamura Shosuke
	The Liar and His Lover: Sidestory	Yuichi Kimijima
2014	Lost Days	Natsu Takano
	The Man with World's Biggest Potential	Ikeda
	Water Polo Yankees	Shinsuke Kato
	Hell Teacher Nube	Katsuya Kimura
2015	Heat	Kohei Matsuyama
	Ichiro	Iemochi Tokugawa	Episode 1
	Lady Girls	Ryosuke Maekawa
2016	Please Love Me!	Junta Sano	Episode 1
	Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa	Eisuke Hata	Episode 2
	Is It Real That Teacher Hayako Is Going to Marry?	Hayato Kitsuregawa	Episodes 4-7
	Budokan	Daichi Mizushima
	Cold Case	Junichi Kudo	Episode 1
2017	Tomodachi Game	Yūichi Katagiri	Lead role	[13]
	Inside Mari	Komori Isao
	Gintama: Mitsuba Hen	Okita Sogo
	Shimokitazawa Die Hard	Kidnapper	Episode 1
	Love and Hong Kong	Kenta Yamada	Lead role; miniseries	[14]
2018	Survival Wedding	Yuichi Kashiwagi		[15]
	Gintama of the Unusual	Okita Sogo	Episode 1
	Giver: Revenge's Giver	Giba	Lead role	[16]
2019	Natsuzora: Natsu's Sky	Ten'yō Yamada	Asadora	[17]
2020	Hanzawa Naoki 2: Episode 0	Kei Kōsaka	Lead role; TV movie	[17]
	Hanzawa Naoki 2	Kei Kōsaka	Episode 3; cameo	[18]
2021	Reach Beyond the Blue Sky	Shibusawa Eiichi	Lead role; Taiga drama	[19]
2022	PICU	Takeshirō Shikota	Lead role	[20]
2025	The Ghost Writer's Wife	Yūichi Nishikōri	Asadora	[21]

Films

Year	Title	Role	Other notes	Ref.
2011	Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max	Ryūsei Sakuta/Kamen Rider Meteor	Credited as "Mysterious student"	[22]
2012	Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen	Ryūsei Sakuta/Kamen Rider Meteor		[22]
	Kamen Rider Fourze the Movie: Space, Here We Come!	Ryūsei Sakuta/Kamen Rider Meteor		[22]
	Toei Hero Next 2: The Future I'm Executing	Riseman	Lead role	[23]
	Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Wizard & Fourze: Movie War Ultimatum	Ryūsei Sakuta/Kamen Rider Meteor		[22]
2013	The Liar and His Lover	Yuichi Kimijima		[24]
	Daily Lives of High School Boys	Hidenori Tabata		[25]
2014	Blue Spring Ride	Aya Kominato		[26]
2016	Wolf Girl and Black Prince	Yū Kusakabe		[27]
	Dangerous Cops: Final 5 Days	Kazunori Kawasumi		[2]
2017	Gintama	Okita Sogo		[2]
	Tomodachi Game: The Movie	Yūichi Katakiri	Lead role	[28]
	Tomodachi Game: The Movie – Final	Yūichi Katakiri	Lead role	[2]
	Psychic Kusuo	Shun Kaidō		[2]
2018	River's Edge	Ichiro Yamada	Lead role	[29]
	Anoko no Toriko	Yori Suzuki	Lead role	[30]
	Evil and the Mask	Ryōsuke Itō		[31]
	Marmalade Boy	Yū Matsuura	Lead role	[32]
	Reon	Tōru Ichijō		[33]
	The Cat in Their Arms	Cat Yoshio	Lead role	[34]
	Bleach	Uryū Ishida		[35]
	Gintama 2	Okita Sogo		[2]
2019	Kingdom	Ying Zheng/Piao		[36]
	Her Blue Sky	Shinnosuke Kanamuro/Shinno (voice)	Lead role	[37]
2020	Not Quite Dead Yet	Matsuoka		[38]
	Sakura	Hajime Hasegawa		[39]
	Blue, Painful, Fragile	Kaede Tabata	Lead role	[40]
	Awake	Eiichi	Lead role	[41]
2021	Tokyo Revengers	Manjiro "Mikey" Sano		[42]
	My Hero Academia: World Heroes' Mission	Rody Soul (voice)		[43]
2022	Kingdom 2: Far and Away	Ying Zheng		[36]
	Black Night Parade	Miharu Hino	Lead role	[44]
2023	Familia	Manabu		[45]
	In Love and Deep Water	Suguru Ubukata	Lead role	[46]
	Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween Part 1	Manjiro "Mikey" Sano		[47]
	Tokyo Revengers 2: Bloody Halloween Part 2	Manjiro "Mikey" Sano		[48]
	Kingdom 3: The Flame of Destiny	Ying Zheng		[49]
	Family	Makoto	Lead role	[50]
2024	Living in Two Worlds	Dai Igarashi	Lead role	[51]
	Kingdom 4: Return of the Great General	Ying Zheng		[52]
2025	Kokuho	Kikuo Tachibana	Lead role	[53]
	Babanba Banban Vampire	Mori Ranmaru	Lead role	[54]
2026	Kingdom 5	Ying Zheng		[55]

Others

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2020	71st NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen	Judge		[56]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work(s)	Result	Ref.
2019	40th Yokohama Film Festival	Best Newcomer	River's Edge, Marmalade Boy, and Gintama 2	Won	[57]
	42nd Japan Academy Film Prize	Newcomer of the Year	River's Edge	Won	[58]
2020	62nd Blue Ribbon Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Kingdom	Won	[59]
	43rd Japan Academy Film Prize	Best Supporting Actor		Won	[60]
	44th Elan d'or Awards	Newcomer of the Year	Himself	Won	[61]
2024	16th Tama Film Awards	Best Actor	Living in Two Worlds, Kingdom 4: Return of the Great General, Family	Won	[62]
2025	34th Japan Movie Critics Awards	Best Actor	Living in Two Worlds	Won	[63]