Yutaka Ozaki

Rock ‘n’ roller 尾崎豊(Yutaka Ozaki)was born November 29, 1965. He was born in Tokyo. He has one older brother, Yasushi. Early in life, he was hospitalized with intestinal torsion and bronchitis which subsequently weakened his internal organs. Ozaki has become mythologized as a rock ‘n’ roll rebel who followed the path of excess.

It was his skill in expressing the frustrations of young people trapped in a conformist social system that made him a Japanese rock martyr. They may sound a bit tame in translation, but Ozaki lyrics like "I don't want to be crushed in the rush hour until my death/Why, to whom and what do have I have to be tied?/I can see myself struggling in a stream from which I can't escape" ("High School Rock 'n' Roll") spoke to disaffected Japanese youth. In songs such as "Seventeen's Map", Ozaki dealt with heavy subjects like teenage prostitution, questioning the values of a society in which a young girl who has lost her dreams sells her body on the street.

His rock career ended tragically, he died at age 26 on April 25, 1992. The cause of death had arisen questions as to the actual cause of death, the most popular being homicide. But it is said he died of excessive accumulation of fluid in his lungs (pulmonary edema) several hours after being found drunk and naked in a Tokyo alleyway early the morning. He left behind a wife, Shigemi, and a son, Hiro.