Hideo Yoshizawa (吉沢 秀雄, Yoshizawa Hideo) born September 2, 1960, is a Japanese video game director, screenwriter, and producer, most famous for his work on the Ninja Gaiden and Klonoa series of video games. Prior to being employed by Namco, he worked for Tecmo and was involved in the original Ninja Gaiden trilogy for the Nintendo Entertainment System under the name "Sakurazaki". Yoshizawa is a professor at Tokyo Polytechnic University.