Takao Osawa’s Full-of-Aura Shopping Style Sparks Buzz Even After Kingdom Finale

An astonishing carnivorous lifestyle

On a January day when the city was still wrapped in New Year’s cheer, a supermarket in Minato Ward, Tokyo, was bustling with celebrity shoppers picking up ingredients for nanakusa-gayu (seven-herb rice porridge). At the checkout, customers lined up with baskets overflowing with goods. Among them stood a muscular, stylishly imposing ikemen middle-aged man who seemed completely out of place. A housewife gasped, “Ah!” as she caught sight of none other than actor Takao Osawa (57).

That day, Osawa wore a white hoodie under a khaki MA-1 jacket. True to his modeling background, he pulled off the casual look with effortless style.

“Osawa-san comes to this store often, so usually no one makes a fuss when they see him. There’s no need to call out to him. I guess someone unfamiliar with him must have noticed today,” said a local regular.

After taking a roughly two-year break starting in 2016, Osawa returned to the screen in the 2019 film Kingdom. In 2024, he appeared in the fourth installment, Kingdom: Return of the Great General.

“To prepare for his role as General Wang Qi in Kingdom, he trained and controlled his diet for eight years. He gained a staggering 20 kilograms of muscle. Last September, he starred in and produced Chinmoku no Kantai: Arctic Ocean Battle. Shinzo Matsuhashi (56), who produced the Kingdom series, was also involved as co-producer,” explained a film magazine writer.

Although his eight-year commitment to General Wang Qi ended with Kingdom: Return of the Great General, in his private life he still maintains a wild, real-life Wang Qi lifestyle.

“In October last year, Osawa appeared on the variety show Talk Queens (Fuji TV), where he shared his unique carnivorous habits: ‘The cows are eating enough grass for me, so I don’t need vegetables.’ He apparently dislikes vegetables and caused a stir in the studio by saying, ‘If I’m eating steak, I want at least 500 grams. Anything under 200 grams is just ham,’” the writer added.

Osawa will turn 58 in March. Perhaps it’s this hearty meat-centric lifestyle that allows him to show no signs of aging as he approaches 60.