Shunsuke Kazama

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

In 1997, when Kazama was in his second year of junior high school, he entered Johnny & Associates and started activities as a trainee. He made his debut on stage that same year in a Shonentai stage play.^[1]

In 1999, he played Kenjiro Kanesue in Kinpachi-sensei.^[2] His performance earned him the Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix award for Best Newcomer.^[3]

In 2002, Kazama was member of unit "FOURTOPS" with fellow trainees Tomohisa Yamashita, Toma Ikuta, and Jun Hasegawa. The quartet hosted Shounen Club, a Johnny's Jr. variety show. In September 2003, Yamashita was chosen to be a member of a new unit, News. FOURTOPS was dissolved with News' debut, and the remaining members would focus on acting.^[4] They reunited in 2018 for Fuji Television's Year-End show Johnny's Countdown as back dancers for duo Tackey & Tsubasa, just as they did in the group's original days, for the duo's final appearance on the show.^[5]

In 2011, Kazama won a Television Drama Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

He was a member of TU→YU in 2008, along with V6's Hiroshi Nagano, NEWS's Takahisa Masuda, Hey! Say! JUMP's Hikaru Yaotome and actor Tatsuya Takeda.^[6]

He starred in the feature-length film Maebashi Visual Kei, as a young farmer who tries to make it big in a visual kei band.^[7]

When fellow Johnny Kazunari Ninomiya from Arashi, with whom Kazama has a close friendship, opened Twitter in 2023, he included a link to Kazama's Johnny's Web profile as if it were his own, much to the amusement of both their fans.^[8]

Mostly known as an actor, Kazama's musical career is basically non-existent, except for a few units at the beginning. So he was happy to receive a present from fellow Johnny and long time friend (Arashi's) Masaki Aiba. On 28 September 2023, at the last airing of the program VS Damashii in which both appeared, Aiba as "captain" and he as "assistant captain". Aiba gifted Kazama (and all the Damashii members) a CD copy of the show's theme song "New Again! Again and again!" saying, "Congratulations on your CD debut, Kazama-kun", to what Kazama responded, "This is the first CD that includes my voice in 26 years (of my entertainment career)."^[9]

It was announced on 16 December 2023 that Kazama would be leaving the agency by year's end, to work as a freelance actor.^[10]

After over 7 years as Monday personality in the Nippon Television morning show "Zip!" it was announced that Kazama would leave on March 23, 2026.^[11]

A long–time fan of all things Disney, it was announced that Kazama would be appointed as a special supporter of the "Pixar World Exhibition" to be held at Crevia Base Tokyo in Toyosu, Tokyo from March 20, 2026. The "Mundo Pixar Experience" has already toured 7 cities as of February 2026, including Barcelona (Spain), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Seoul (South Korea) and London (United Kingdom). Kazama was excited to have in Tokyo the exhibition were people can visit life-size sets of different Pixar movies.^[12][13]

On March 4, 2026, it was announced that Kazama, together with Yūmi Nagashima, was appointed as presenter for the JR East's Train Channel's [ja] Train TV's new program Urban Information Navigator GoodMove! (都市型情報ナビゲーター GOODMOVE!, Toshigata jōhō nabigētā GOODMOVE). The program's contents will include from useful information for daily life to current trends and popular places to visit, all information tailored to consumers' daily commutes.^[14]

Kazama married a non-celebrity woman in 2013, after dating for ten years.^[15][16] According to some gossip sites and fan blogs, Kazama's wife is former actress Kazuna Kawamura. Kawamura and Kazama met in 2004 during the performance of the play "Claudia", a first for Kawamura, who relied in the experience that Kazama had at that time. According to those sites, the pair started dating when the play ended. When it came time to get married, months before, Kawamura announced her retirement from the industry. When Kazama reported the marriage, he named her as a non-celebrity woman, to keep prying eyes from their private life.^[17][18][19]

Kazama and his wife are parents of a boy, born around 2016. His existence was unknown until the child was 3 years old. According to people who have worked with him, Kazama is a very private person, and it isn't his intention to keep hidden his private life, just that he rarely speaks about it.^[20][21][22]

On December 22, 2020, Kazama's talent agency announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19. He made a full recovery on January 4.^[23]

Film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2011	Maebashi Visual Kei	Takuji		[24]
2012	Ninkyo Helper	Seiji Yamagiwa		[25]
2013	Suzuki Sensei	Yuji Katsuno		[26]
	Petal Dance	Kawada		[27]
2015	Z Island	Shigeru		[28]
2016	Cats Don't Come When You Call	Mitsuo Sugita	Lead role	[29]
	Everest: The Summit of the Gods	Buntaro Kishi		[30]
	Midori: The Camellia Girl	Wanda Masamitsu		[31]
	Black Widow Business	Hiroshi		[32]
2021	Every Trick in the Book	Hideyoshi Kōchi		[33]
2024	Sensei's Pious Lie	Masami Hayafuji		[34]
2025	How Dare You?			[35]

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Television

More information Year(s), Title ...

Year(s)	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1999−2004	Kinpachi-sensei	Kenjiro Kanesue	3 seasons	[36]
2003	Taikouki Saru to Yobareta Otoko	Koichiro	Television film	[37]
2006	Akihabara@Deep	Page	Lead role	[38]
2011	Still, Life Goes On	Kenji Amemiya		[39]
2011−2012	Chūgakusei Nikki	Shunsuke Kanazawa		[40]
2012−2013	Jun and Ai	Itoshi Machida / Jun Machida	Asadora	[41]
2013	Matching Love	Kanata Tokui	Television film	[42]
2014	Boku no Ita Jikan	Mamoru Mizushima		[43]
	Keiji	Kiyoshi Nagai	Television film	[44]
	Asunaro San San Nana Byoushi	Sho Hosaka		[45]
2014−2015	Bonkura	Sakichi		[46][47]
2015	Keisei Saimin no Otoko	Kojima Shingo		[48]
2016	99.9 Criminal Lawyer	Kazuki Yamashita		[49]
2017	Gekokujo Juken	Narasaki Tetsuya		[50]
	Rikuoh	Taro Sakamoto		[51]
2018	Segodon	Hashimoto Sanai	Taiga drama	[52]
2020−2021	Awaiting Kirin	Tokugawa Ieyasu	Taiga drama	[53]
2021−2022	Come Come Everybody	Haruhiko Katagiri	Asadora	[54]
2022	Silent	Masaki Haruo		[55]
2023	Hatsukoi, Zarari	Ryuji Okamura	Lead role	[56]
2024	Unmet: A Neurosurgeon's Diary	Hirotsugu Emoto	Episode 1	[57]
2025	Unbound	Tsuruya Kiemon	Taiga drama	[58]
2025	10 Things I Want to Do Before I Turn 40	Suzume Tojo		[59]

Close

• Zip! (Monday's main personality) (2018–2026) (NTV)^[60]
• VS Damashii (Team's assistant captain) (2021-2023) (Fuji TV)^[61][62][11]

Other non-TV programs

• Urban Information Navigator GoodMove! (都市型情報ナビゲーター GOODMOVE!, Toshigata jōhō nabigētā GOODMOVE) (JR East's Train Channel's [ja] Train TV, April 2026)^[14]

• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (2000−2004) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters GX (2004−2008) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
• Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie: Pyramid of Light (2005) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi^[63]
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time (2010) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi^[64]
• From Up On Poppy Hill (2011) − Shirō Mizunuma & Hiroshi Tachibana^[65]
• Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions (2016) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi^[63]

• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters Saikyo Card Battle (2016) – Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi^[63]
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (2016) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
• Jump Force (2019) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi^[66]
• Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel (2022) – Yami Yugi^[63]