Nobuaki Kakuda

Nobuaki Kakuda has one of the more crowded resumes I have come across. Karateka, kickboxer, bodybuilder, actor, singer, and head referee for K-1. Most people build a life out of any one of those. Born in Sakai, Osaka, in 1961, he studied at Kansai Gaidai University, a foreign language school, which adds another odd angle to the picture. What interests me most is the pivot from competitor to official. He fought, and then he stepped into the role of the man who enforces the rules, which put him on national television during the years when combat sports were at their commercial peak in Japan. That is a difficult transition psychologically. Referees are supposed to disappear into the background, and yet he arrived with a fighter's presence already attached to his name. Add bodybuilding, which demands its own relentless discipline, plus acting and singing, and you get someone who apparently refuses to pick a lane. The stamina alone is worth noting.

Name (English)

Nobuaki Kakuda

Name (Japanese)

角田信朗

Reading

かくだ のぶあき

Born

April 11, 1961 (age 65)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Ox

Origin

Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan

Height

174 cm

Occupation

karateka / kickboxer / bodybuilder / referee / singer

University

Kansai Gaidai University

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/kakuda_nobuaki/
• Xhttps://x.com/nobuakikakuda
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuaki%20Kakuda
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E8%A7%92%E7%94%B0%E4%BF%A1%E6%9C%97
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7046113

Tags

• Osaka Prefecture
• karateka
• kickboxer
• bodybuilder

Last updated

2026-08-07

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.