Yōsuke Kubozuka

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. 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). 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, Monsters Club, Helter Skelter, 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.