Hikaru Kurosaki

Seiki Kurosaki (黒崎 誠輝) was born on January 31, 1962, in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. As a child he watched reruns of the TBS action series Key Hunter and became a devoted fan of its star, the martial artist Sonny Chiba. That admiration set the course of his life: in 1978, at 16, he joined Chiba's stunt and action troupe, the Japan Action Club.

Kurosaki's formal schooling has not been documented in public sources. His professional training came through the Japan Action Club (JAC), which he joined in 1978. JAC was Sonny Chiba's school for action performers, and Kurosaki listed tennis, jazz dance, skiing and horse riding among his skills. His hobby was collecting belt buckles. He later appeared in JAC stage productions in Tokyo, including shows at the Nissay Theatre and the Shinjuku Koma Theater.

Kurosaki started as a suit actor and stuntman. His first role was a Ninder foot soldier in Toei's 1978 Spider-Man, followed by henchman parts in Battle Fever J and Denshi Sentai Denziman and stunt work on the Kage no Gundan (Shadow Warriors) series. He made his credited acting debut in 1980 as Arisuke in the TV Asahi period drama Yagyu Abare Tabi.

From 1981 he used the stage name Hikaru Kurosaki (黒崎 輝). His first leading film role came in Toei's Igano Kabamaru (1983), followed by Kotaro Makaritoru! (1984). His comic timing and stunts without doubles won him billing as a "Japanese Jackie Chan" and the heir to Hiroyuki Sanada, alongside whom (with Junya Takagi) he was one of the "big three" of JAC's young stars. He also released records on CBS Sony and sang the themes of his films.

In 1984 he guest starred in Choudenshi Bioman as Shota Yamamori (Magne Warrior). In 1985 he led the Fuji TV special Kamen no Ninja Akakage and then MegaBeast Investigator Juspion (TV Asahi, March 15, 1985 to March 24, 1986), the fourth entry in Toei's Metal Hero series. He played the unmasked hero and performed much of his own action, while the armoured suit was worn by a specialist suit actor. The transformation pose was his idea.

After Juspion he appeared in TV dramas and period specials, including Hissatsu Shigotonin V Fuun Ryuko-hen (1987), Tokugawa Ieyasu (1988, as Hattori Hanzo), Oda Nobunaga (1989, as Kinoshita Tokichiro) and Minamoto no Yoshitsune (1990), and in films such as Setouchi Shonen Yakyudan Seishun-hen: Saigo no Rakuen (1987), Downtown Heroes (1988), Remains: Utsukushiki Yushatachi (1990) and Best Guy (1990). He left JAC in 1992, worked briefly as Futaro Miyazawa (宮沢 風太郎), including in Fuji TV's Furikaereba Yatsu ga Iru (1993), and retired from acting by the end of 1995.

Kurosaki met actress and former JAC member Yuko Asuka (飛鳥 裕子) on the set of Choudenshi Bioman in 1984, where she played the villain Farrah. They married in 1987. After his retirement the couple ran a bar in Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, then moved to Motobu in northern Okinawa, where in 1998 they founded the diving shop Mother Earth. Together they also promoted a save the Earth campaign under the same name. Kurosaki worked there as a scuba diving instructor and guide for the rest of his life, and was a member of the Motobu Town Diving Association. Yuko died in December 2011. The couple had no children. In later years he lived alone in Motobu, and the shop's website introduced his four dogs, Umi, Sora, Hana and Yume, as staff.

Kurosaki spoke thoughtfully about comic acting. Discussing Juspion in 1992, he described the balance he aimed for: a hero who looks like a handsome lead but is slightly off, with a comic quality that stops short of foolishness, and he said that bringing out that flavour was very difficult. In a 2001 interview with the Brazilian magazine Henshin! he said disagreements with his mentor Sonny Chiba were behind his decision to leave show business. He chose a quiet life by the sea, rarely engaged with his overseas fame and kept fans at a distance, while sharing his love of Okinawa's reefs with divers through Mother Earth.

Kurosaki is remembered in Japan as one of the brightest JAC action stars of the early 1980s, the comic lead of Igano Kabamaru and Kotaro Makaritoru!, and as Juspion, a Metal Hero that broke with the Space Sheriff formula. His Bioman role as the Magne Warrior is cited by fans as a forerunner of the Super Sentai sixth ranger. Abroad, especially in Brazil, Juspion helped launch a lasting love of tokusatsu and Japanese pop culture among a generation of viewers who grew up with Rede Manchete in the late 1980s and 1990s.

MegaBeast Investigator Juspion premiered in Brazil on Rede Manchete in 1988 as O Fantástico Jaspion and became a cultural phenomenon. VEJA reported that it reached about 15 ratings points, at times surpassing TV Globo. The phrase "Pela luz de Daileon!" became a catchphrase, the children's group Trem da Alegria recorded the song "Jaspion-Changeman", and the hero starred in Brazilian comic books, including a crossover with Spielban. The success opened the way for Changeman, Jiraiya and other Japanese series on Brazilian TV. According to IBGE census data cited by g1, at least 53 Brazilians were named Jaspion, 47 of them born between 1980 and 1999. In 2018 a Japanese television programme named Kurosaki the most famous Japanese person in Brazil. After his death, the rights holder Sato Company streamed all episodes free on its TokuSato YouTube channel until July 16, 2026.

Hikaru Kurosaki died in Motobu, Okinawa, in 2026, aged 64. His death was announced at the end of June 2026 on Facebook by Masaki Sekiguchi of the Motobu Town Diving Association, who wrote that because Mr Kurosaki of Mother Earth lived alone, the association was notifying business partners, and recalled more than 30 years of shared joys and hardships. The announcement did not give a date of death; some Brazilian outlets reported that he died on Monday, June 29, and the news was widely reported internationally on July 2, 2026. No official cause of death was made public, although some reports said he had been living with an undisclosed illness. Tributes came from Juspion co-star Hiroshi Watari, comedian Muga Tsukaji, singer Shoko Nakagawa and fans across Japan and Latin America.