Yōsuke Kubozuka

Yōsuke Kubozuka (窪塚 洋介, Kubozuka Yōsuke; born May 7, 1979 in Yokosuka, Kanagawa) is a Japanese actor and musician.

Yōsuke Kubozuka
窪塚洋介
Kubozuka at the 36th Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2024
Born	(1979-05-07) 7 May 1979 (age 46) Yokosuka, Kanagawa, Japan
Occupation(s)	Actor, musician
Years active	1994–present
Spouses	Unknown ​ ​ (m. 2003; div. 2012)​ PINKY ​ (m. 2015)​
Children	2, including Airu Kubozuka
Website	www.manjiline-amatorecordz.com

Career

Yosuke Kubozuka has been a model for many magazines and TV commercials before starting out his acting career where he debuted in a 1995 TV crime drama Kindaichi Case Files. In 1998, he starred in the TV series GTO as the role of an honors student, Yoshito Kikuchi. In 2000, he starred in Ikebukuro West Gate Park along with Tomoya Nagase, Ken Watanabe (The Last Samurai, Memoirs of a Geisha, Inception) and Tomohisa Yamashita (Nobuta wo Produce, Kurosagi, Operation Love, Code Blue). In this drama he starring as the role of "King" of the G-Boys, Takashi Ando.

In 2001, he starred in Strawberry on the Shortcake along with other popular young artists such as Hideaki Takizawa and Kyoko Fukada. In the drama he took the role of being Kyoko Fukada's first love.

In October of that same year, Go (directed by Isao Yukisada), which tells the story of a Zainichi chosenjin teenager who falls in love with a Japanese girl, was officially released. For his performance in this role, Kubozuka took home two awards (Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role and Newcomer of the Year) at Japan Academy Film Prize.^[1] Kubozuka also appeared in Mr. Children's 2002 "Kimi ga Suki" music video, which won MTV Video Music Award Japan for Video of the Year in 2002 (Mr. Children also nominated in Best Group Category but losing to Backstreet Boys).^[2]

Since then, Kubozuka took on projects starring in Ping Pong, Kyoki no Sakura as well as Samurai Resurrection.

He also appeared in films such as Tokyo Island,^[3] Monsters Club,^[4] Helter Skelter,^[5] and the 2016 remake of Silence directed by Martin Scorsese.

Kubozuka has also been pursuing his career as a reggae musician by the name 'Manji Line' (卍 LINE) since 2006.

Personal life

Kubozuka graduated from Kanagawa Prefectural Yokosuka High School. He married a non-celebrity woman in May 2003 and had one son. In 2004, he survived after falling 26 metres from his 9th floor apartment. On July 12, 2012, Kubozuka announced through his official website that he had divorced his wife a month earlier, and that he has official custody of his son. Kubozuka remarried in December 2015, a daughter was born in 2017.^[6][7]

Filmography

Films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2001	Go	Sugihara	Lead role	[8]
2015	Deadman Inferno	Shirakawa		[9]
2016	Silence	Kichijiro	American film	[10]
2017	Alley Cat	Hideaki Asa / Maru		[11]
2019	The First Supper	Shun		[12]
2020	Mio's Cookbook	Komatsubara		[13]
2021	First Love	Gamon Makabe		[14]
	DIVOC-12		Anthology film	[15]
	Go Seppuku Yourselves			[16]
2023	Sin Clock	Shinji Takagi		[17]
	Home Sweet Home			[18]
	Phoenix: Reminiscence of Flower	George (voice)		[19]
	Knuckle Girl	Shiraishi	South Korean-Japanese film	[20]
2025	Frontline: Yokohama Bay	Yukiyoshi Sendo		[21]
	The Killer Goldfish			[22]
	Transcending Dimensions	Rosuke Yamanaka		[23]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1998	Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO)	Yoshito Kikuchi		[24]
2000	Match Making	Junichi Ohata		[25]
	Ikebukuro West Gate Park (IWGP)	Takashi Ando, G-Boys King		[26]
2023	Phoenix: Eden17	George (voice)		[19]
2024	Tokyo Vice	Naoki Hayama	Season 2	[27]
	GTO Revival	Yoshito Kikuchi		[24][28]

Stage Play

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2015–16	The Teachings of Kaiju		Lead role	[29]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work(s)	Result	Ref.
2001	26th Hochi Film Awards	Best Actor	Go!	Won	[30]
2002	25th Japan Academy Film Prize	Best Actor		Won	[8]
		Newcomer of the Year		Won
	23rd Yokohama Film Festival	Best Actor		Won	[31]