Yūzō Kayama

The nickname was Wakadaishō, the Young General, and the running joke of Yūzō Kayama's life is that it never stopped fitting. Born 11 April 1937 in Yokohama and educated at Keio, he became the face of the Wakadaishō film series and then wrote his own standard, "Kimi to Itsumademo." That second part is what outsiders underrate. Plenty of actors sing. Almost none compose the song everybody else ends up singing. His honors run from the 1961 Elan d'or Newcomer award to the Order of the Rising Sun in 2014 and the Iwatani Tokiko Award in 2017 — a span from teen-idol screen fame to formal state recognition that very few entertainers ever cover. He loved the sea, kept performing long past the age when most people stop, and carried an unforced cheerfulness through all of it. That last quality is the one nobody can copy, and it is why the name still means something.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Yūzō Kayama

Name (Japanese)

加山雄三

Reading

かやま ゆうぞう

Born

April 11, 1937 (age 89)

Origin

Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Height

175 cm

Occupation

singer / actor / singer-songwriter / composer / tarento

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Ox

Blood type

A

Active years

1960 -

High school

Keio Senior High School

University

Keio University

Awards & achievements

• 1961 Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year
• Golden Arrow Award
• 2014 The Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette

Works summary

Appearances

387 (1960–2025)

By year (titles with a known year)

1960: 2, 1961: 10, 1962: 9, 1963: 6, 1964: 2, 1965: 9, 1966: 16, 1967: 16, 1968: 11, 1969: 11, 1970: 8, 1971: 10, 1972: 6, 1973: 1, 1974: 5, 1975: 6, 1976: 10, 1977: 8, 1978: 10, 1979: 4, 1980: 7, 1981: 11, 1982: 8, 1983: 5, 1984: 3, 1985: 6, 1986: 9, 1987: 3, 1988: 5, 1989: 2, 1990: 5, 1991: 3, 1992: 11, 1993: 1, 1994: 4, 1995: 5, 1996: 3, 1997: 5, 1999: 4, 2000: 6, 2001: 3, 2002: 1, 2003: 2, 2004: 4, 2005: 4, 2007: 3, 2008: 2, 2009: 1, 2010: 6, 2011: 2, 2012: 5, 2013: 1, 2014: 4, 2015: 5, 2017: 3, 2018: 3, 2019: 3, 2020: 1, 2022: 1, 2023: 1, 2025: 1, year unknown: 65

Debut work

Man Against Man

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttps://kayamayuzo.com/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y%C5%ABz%C5%8D%20Kayama
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8A%A0%E5%B1%B1%E9%9B%84%E4%B8%89
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3113502

Tags

• Kanagawa Prefecture
• singer
• actor
• singer-songwriter

Last updated

November 2, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.