Shuichi Aizawa

Shuichi Aizawa (相沢 周市, Aizawa Shūichi) is a member of the Kira investigation team that leaves the team under the guise of needing to support his family because the Japanese police cut their funding, though L would have paid for it. He returns after L's death, where he is one of the first to suspect Light of being Kira, and helps contribute to his eventual defeat. He becomes the leader of the investigation team afterwards. He is voiced by Keiji Fujiwara in the Japanese anime and Trevor Devall in the English dub. In the film, he is played by Tatsuhito Okuda.

Aizawa has a wife and child, named Eriko and Yumi. Aizawa and his wife also have a baby.

Obata said that he did not plan to draw Aizawa for an extended period of time, so he "began to worry" when Aizawa continued appearing "more and more." Obata felt that originally his face was not "good for a main character" so he said he decided to "gradually make him more presentable. [laughs]" and increase the volume of his hair. Obata believes that Aizawa was "easy to draw" and that it is easy for him to draw people who "act consistently." Obata said that he drew Aizawa while believing that "it would be nice if there were lots of people like him in Japan." Obata redesigned Aizawa to "look older" and "really make it feel like four years had passed since L's death."

Towards the end of Death Note, Ohba decided to make Aizawa the chief of the NPA because he did not want to create a new character in the final chapter. Ohba felt that Aizawa is the best person to be the NPA head because Aizawa held connections to the Japanese police and knows Near.