Shunsuke Kazama

Shunsuke Kazama (風間 俊介) is a Japanese actor and television personality.

Career
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.

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

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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)."

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

Personal life
Kazama married a non-celebrity woman in 2013, after dating for ten years. 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.

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.

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.

Other TV shows

 * Zip! (Monday's main personality) (2018- ) (NTV)
 * VS Damashii (Team's assistant captain) (2021-2023) (Fuji TV)

Animation

 * 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
 * Yu-Gi-Oh!: Bonds Beyond Time (2010) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
 * From Up On Poppy Hill (2011) − Shirō Mizunuma & Hiroshi Tachibana.
 * Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Dark Side of Dimensions (2016) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi

Video games

 * Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Links (2016) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi
 * Jump Force (2019) − Yugi Mutou/Yami Yugi