Kazuo

Kazuo (カズオ, かずお) is a masculine Japanese given name.

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

 * Kazuo Abe (阿部 一男), Japanese sport wrestler
 * Kazuo Aichi (愛知 和男), Japanese politician
 * Kazuo Aoki (青木 一男), Japanese government minister during the Second Sino-Japanese War, and into World War II
 * Kazuo Azuma (東 和男), Japanese shogi player
 * Kazuo Chiba (千葉 和雄), Japanese aikido teacher
 * Kazuo Dan (檀 一雄), Japanese novelist and poet
 * Kazuo Endo, Kobe earthquake survivor
 * Fukumoto Kazuo (福本 和夫), Japanese Marxist
 * Kazuo Funaki (舟木 一夫), Japanese Enka singer
 * Kazuo Hara (原 一男), Japanese documentary film director
 * Kazuo Harada (原田 一男), anime producer, audio director, and sound effects director
 * Kazuo Hasegawa (長谷川 一夫), Japanese film and stage actor
 * Kazuo Hashimoto (橋本 和芙), late Japanese inventor of Caller ID and the telephone answering machine, including the ansafone
 * Kazuo Hatoyama (鳩山 和夫), patriarchal head of the prominent Japanese Hatoyama political family
 * Kazuo Hayashi (林 一夫), Japanese actor and voice actor
 * Kazuo Hirai (平井 一夫), President/CEO of Sony Computer
 * Kazuo Hiramatsu (平松 一夫), accounting scholar, president of Kwansei Gakuin University
 * Kazuo Hirotomo (弘友 和夫), Japanese politician
 * Hirotsu Kazuo (広津 和郎), Japanese novelist and literary critic active in the Shōwa period of Japan
 * Kazuo Ichinohe (一戸 和男), Japanese voice actor (stage name Shin Aomori (青森 伸))
 * Kazuo Igarashi (五十嵐 和男), Japanese aikidoka
 * Kazuo Ikehiro (池広 一夫), Japanese film director
 * Kazuo Inamori (稲盛 和夫), Japanese businessman
 * Kazuo Inoue (井上 和郎), Japanese cyclist
 * Kazuo Ishiguro (石黒一雄, born 1954), British author
 * Kazuo Iwama, multiple people
 * Kazuo Kadonaga (角永 和夫), contemporary Japanese sculptor
 * Kazuo Kamimura (上村 一夫), Japanese manga artist
 * Kazuo Kanayama (金山 和雄), Japanese golfer
 * Kazuo Kawai (川井 一男), Japanese table tennis player
 * Kazuo Kimura (木村 一夫), Japanese high jumper
 * Kazuo Kitagawa (北側 一雄), Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries in the Japanese Cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi
 * Kazuo Kitamura (北村 和夫), Japanese actor
 * Kazuo Kobayashi (小林 一男), Japanese diver
 * Kazuo Koike (小池 一夫), manga artist
 * Komizu Kazuo (小水 一男), Japanese film director
 * Kazuo Kubokawa (窪川 一雄), Japanese astronomer
 * Kazuo Kumakura (熊倉 一雄), Japanese actor, voice actor and theatre director
 * Kazuo Kuroki (黒木 和雄), Japanese film director
 * Kazuo Manabe (真部 一男), Japanese shogi player
 * Kazuo Matsuda (松田 一夫), Japanese ice hockey player
 * Kazuo Matsui (松井稼頭央), Japanese baseball player
 * Kazuo Misaki (三崎 和雄), Japanese professional mixed martial arts fighter and former judoka
 * Kazuo Miyagawa (宮川 一夫), Japanese cinematographer
 * Kazuo Mizutani (水谷 一生), Chief of Staff of Japanese Imperial Guard during the close of World War II
 * Kazuo Mori (森 一生), Japanese film director
 * Kazuo Nagano (永野 一男), Japanese fraudster
 * Kazuo Nakamura (1926–2002), Japanese-Canadian painter and sculptor
 * Kazuo Nakamura (basketball) (中村 和雄), Japanese basketball coach
 * Kazuo Nakanishi (中西 一男), briefly the leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate in the chaotic years of the Yama-Ichi War
 * Kazuo Nishii (西井 一夫), Japanese magazine editor and photography critic
 * Kazuo Noda (野田 一雄), Japanese swimmer
 * Kazuo Oga (男鹿 和雄), Japanese art director
 * Kazuo Ohno (大野 一雄), Japanese dancer associated with Butoh
 * Kazuo Oka (岡 和男), Japanese voice actor
 * Kazuo Okada (岡田 和生), Japanese billionaire businessman, and art collector
 * Kazuo Okamatsu (岡松 和夫), Japanese philologist and novelist
 * Kazuo Okamura (岡村 一夫), Japanese-American professional wrestler
 * Kazuo Ozaki (尾崎 加寿夫), Japanese footballer
 * Kazuo Saito (斉藤 和夫), Japanese footballer and manager
 * Kazuo Saito (athlete) (斎藤 和夫), Japanese racewalker
 * Kazuo Sakamaki (酒巻和男), first prisoner of war held by the US in World War II
 * Kazuo Sakurada (桜田 一男), known as Mr. Sakurada, retired Japanese professional wrestler
 * Kazuo Sato (disambiguation), multiple people
 * Kazuo Shii (志位 和夫), Japanese politician
 * Kazuo Shimizu (清水 和男), Japanese footballer
 * Kazuo Shimizu (wrestler) (清水 一夫), Japanese sport wrestler
 * Kazuo Shinohara (篠原 一男), Japanese architect
 * Kazuo Shiraga (白髪 一雄), Japanese abstract painter
 * Kazuo Sugimoto (杉本 和陽), Japanese shogi player
 * Kazuo Takahashi (高橋 和生), Japanese mixed martial artist
 * Kazuo Taoka (田岡 一雄), Godfather of the Yamaguchi-gumi yakuza syndicate
 * Kazuo Tokumitsu (徳光 和夫), Japanese TV presenter and announcer
 * Kazuo Tsukuda (佃 和夫), chairman of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries
 * Kazuo Umezu (楳図 かずお), horror manga author
 * Kazuo Wada (和田 一夫), Japanese businessman
 * Kazuo Yamada (山田 一雄), Japanese conductor
 * Kazuo Yamaguchi (山口 一男), Japanese sociologist
 * Kazuo Chaed, Film Director

Fictional characters

 * Kazuo Tengan, the antagonist of Danganronpa
 * 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

Video games

 * Kazuo or Go! Sudoku, is the name for the Japanese release of the PlayStation Portable puzzle game
 * Kazuo Sawa is the name of a video game composer. Notable works include the soundtracks for The Battle of Olympus and Rivercity Ransom
 * 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)