is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 manga artist

Mangaka

is the Japanese word for a comic artist or cartoonist. Outside of Japan, manga usually refers to a Japanese comic book and mangaka refers to the author of the manga, who is usually Japanese...

. He made his debut in 1971 under the penname writing shōnen

Shonen

The term refers to manga marketed to a male audience aged roughly 10 and up. The Kanji characters literally mean "few" and "year", respectively, where the characters generally mean "comic"...

 manga

Manga

Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

, but he switched in the 1980s to seinen

Seinen

is a subset of manga that is generally targeted at a 20–30 year old male audience, but the audience can be older with some manga aimed at businessmen well into their 40s. In Japanese, the word Seinen means "young man" or "young men" and is not suggestive of sexual matters...

 manga. He is best known for Natsuko's Sake

Natsuko's Sake

is a Japanese manga series by Akira Oze. It was adapted into a live-action television series in 1994....

, which was adapted as a live-action television series. Oze won the 1986 Shogakukan Manga Award

Shogakukan Manga Award

The is one of Japan's major manga awards, sponsored by Shogakukan Publishing. It has been awarded annually for serialized manga since 1955 and features candidates from a number of publishers.The current award categories are:...

 for shōnen manga for Hatsukoi Scandal and Tobe! Jinrui II.

Selected works

(1978, 1 volume) (1981–1986, 18 volumes) (1986–1987, 7 volumes) - story by Masao Yajima (1988–1991, 12 volumes) (1992–1994, 7 volumes) (1994–1997, 9 volumes) (2001–2004, 8 volumes)

External links

• Official Website
• Profile at The Ultimate Manga Guide