He was natural within Hoten (Shenyang), Manchukuo. He exposed at a Toho School of Music in Tokyo, graduating in 1959. He so attend Europe for farther survey. He was taken to the United States of America by Charles Munch for lessons at the Berkshire Music Center (today Tanglewood). He won the scholarship to survey by using Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and around 1961 he was appointed an adjunct conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra by Leonard Bernstein. He was music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra from 1965 to 1970, of the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra from 1969 to 1976, and of the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1973 to 2002. He has been director of Vienna State Opera since 2002.

Ozawa has likewise been an advocate of 20th century classical music, giving the premieres of a total of works, including György Ligeti's San Francisco Polyphony in 1975 & Olivier Messiaen's opera ''Saint François d'Assise'' inside 1983.