Yasuo Shinozaki was born and began his conducting studies in Japan. He then continued with Leopold Hager at the Vienna Music Academy, with Myung-Whun Chung at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and Seiji Ozawa and Bernard Haitink at Tanglewood.

In 2000 Yasuo Shinozaki took the second prize in the Second International Sibelius Conducting Competition, conducting a memorable, emotional performance of Sibelius's Symphony no. 2. He immediately received invitations from the Helsinki and Turku Philharmonic orchestras. At the beginning of 2007 he took up his position as Chief Conductor / Artistic Director of the Kymi Sinfonietta. In Finland he has also worked for example with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tampere Philharmonic and the Tapiola Sinfonietta.

As Assistant Conductor to Esa-Pekka Salonen at the Los Angeles Philharmonic between August 2001 and September 2004 Shinozaki conducted more than 40 concerts. In addition to subscription concerts at the new Walt Disney Concert Hall, he conducted the orchestra on regional tours, at the Hollywood Bowl and elsewhere. He also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group.

In his native Japan Shinozaki, who now lives in the UK, has worked with such orchestras as the Tokyo Philharmonic and the New Japan Philharmonic and conducted at the Tokyo Nikikai Opera and Japan National Opera, where he made his operatic debut with Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro. In the UK he has collaborated with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic.

Yasuo Shinozaki has established a great reputation in South Africa, recently conducting the Cape Philharmonic, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra.