South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho called him "the greatest storyteller of our time", while Dominican-American writer Junot Díaz proclaimed Urasawa to be a national treasure in Japan.

He then illustrated the adventure series Master Keaton (1988–1994), which was written by Hokusei Katsushika and Nagasaki, and created the sports manga Happy!

Following the acclaimed Pluto (2003–2009), which is a re-imagining of Astro Boy by Osamu Tezuka, one of Urasawa's biggest influences, he and Nagasaki created the mystery series Billy Bat (2008–2016).

After two short series, a sequel to Master Keaton with Nagasaki and Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams, Urasawa began his currently ongoing Asadora!

[1] "The Greatest Robot on Earth" and "The Artificial Sun" arcs of Tezuka's Astro Boy were his first experiences with manga at four or five years old.

Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction winner, praised Monster and proclaimed "Urasawa is a national treasure in Japan.

As a guest at the 2012 Japan Expo in France, Urasawa talked about how he entered the manga industry, gave a live drawing demonstration, and performed two songs as a musician, and joined rock band Hemenway on stage the following day.

[19] In August 2013, Urasawa created his first "monster manga" titled "Kaiju Kingdom", a 41-page one-shot published in Big Comic.

[26] The June 9, 2021, episode on Yoshikazu Yasuhiko won the Grand Prize in the entertainment category at the 2022 Japan Media Arts Festival.

[27] Beginning in July 2015, Urasawa started contributing to the "Musica Nostra" column series that was published in Shueisha's Grand Jump magazine.

[29][30] Urasawa contributed a short, full color, left-to-right manga titled "Tanshin Funin/Solo Mission" to the February 2016 French comics anthology The Tipping Point to commemorate publisher Humanoids' 40th anniversary.

Released in June 2016 on the website of Tokyo radio station InterFM897, it coincides with the TV program KKBOX Here comes The Beatles and celebrates the 50th anniversary of the band's visit to Japan.

Junji and Naoki airs Sundays at 5pm on Nippon Cultural Broadcasting and features both men talking about their lives, professions, and favorite hobbies.

[33] That year Urasawa also began the limited series Mujirushi: The Sign of Dreams in a collaboration with France's Louvre Museum.

[37] South Korean film director Bong Joon-ho called Urasawa "the greatest storyteller of our time" and likened the experience of reading Asadora!

[38] The November 2018 issue of Monthly Big Comic Spirits, released on September 27, was given the special title "Urasawa Jack".

[39] On December 27, Urasawa co-hosted a special radio program about Osamu Tezuka alongside Chiaki Kuriyama for Nippon Cultural Broadcasting.

[40] In 2019, he designed the official posters of the 2019 Osaka Women's Marathon and a classic car charity event organized by Toshiaki Karasawa for reconstruction after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.

[45] In 2020, Urasawa drew advertisements for the Samsonite Red luggage brand,[46] and was chosen to create one of the official posters for the 2020 Summer Olympics.

[48] In June, Urasawa created the cover portrait for Universal Japan's 250th anniversary release of music by Ludwig van Beethoven.

[51] In November 2021, Urasawa's first one-shot for Shueisha, "Dr. Toguro Dokuro no Saigo", was published in Grand Jump to celebrate the magazine's 10th anniversary.

[54] Fusanosuke Natsume said that prior to entering university, Urasawa's style showed influence from Shinji Nagashima and Osamu Tezuka's 1970s work, but went on to claim that in 1979 it became aligned with that of Katsuhiro Otomo.

[59] Due to his skill at structuring panel layouts, Kazuhiko Torishima cited Urasawa as the true successor to Tezuka.

[60] When talking in 1997 about the future of manga, Urasawa opined that "Tezuka created the form that exists today, then caricatures appeared next, and comics changed again when Katsuhiro Otomo came on the scene.

had light entertainment with cute young girls, Natsume says Urasawa developed his own personal style with Monster, which he described as realistic, or directorially based, with cinematic panel layouts similar to Otomo and gekiga artists.

Having drawn manga for over five decades, he just follows his instincts, explaining "When I start to structure a story narratively, the question of tempo — developing a character moment-to-moment and then jumping to a two-page spread — how do you determine where that happens?

"[64] Urasawa started playing guitar in junior high school inspired by folk rock singer-songwriters Takuro Yoshida and Bob Dylan.

[72] He released the limited single "Tsuki ga Tottemo..." (月がとっても…) on June 4, 2008,[72] and his debut album Hanseiki no Otoko (半世紀の男, 'Half Century Man') on November 29, 2008.

[5] A single featuring a remix of T. Rex's "20th Century Boy" and Urasawa's "Bob Lennon (Kenji no Uta)" was released on August 19, 2009.

[77] In 2020, Urasawa was one of many people who submitted lyrics that were adopted by Sunplaza Nakano-kun into a new version of Bakufu Slump's 1984 song "Murida!