Kazuaki Tasaka

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Kazuaki Tasaka (田坂和昭, Tasaka Kazuaki^?, born August 3, 1971 in Hiroshima City) is a reitred Japanese international football (soccer) player. He was a defensive midfielder. He is currently an assistant coach at Shimizu S-Pulse

He was capped 7 times for the Japanese national team between 1995 and 1999. His first international appearance came on May 28, 1995 in a friendly against Ecuador at National Olympic Stadium in Tokyo.

He was educated at and played for Tokai University Daiichi High School and Tokai University. After graduating, he joined newly promoted J. League side Bellmare Hiratsuka. He was immediately installed as a regular and received the J. League Young Player of the Year award that year. Due to club's financial problem, he was released along with Nobuyuki Kojima, Wagner Lopes, Hong Myung-Bo and Yoshihiro Natsuka at the end of the 1998 season. He moved to Shimizu S-Pulse (1999) and then to Cerezo Osaka (2000-2002) where he finished his playing career.

He worked as a coach at Cerezo's youth setup from 2003. He was promoted to an assistant coach of clubs top team in the middle of the 2004 season and helped them to stay up at Division 1. He was offered a contract extension but he declined it to prepare for acquiring the S-Class Coaching License, a prerequisite to manage a J. League club, and study coaching skills abroad. He attained the S-Class License in 2005. He became a coach at Shimizu S-Pulse's satellite team in 2006, and was promoted to an assistant coach of club's top team in 2007.