He is a former holder of the Ryūō, Meijin, Ōi, Ōza, Kiō, Ōshō and Kisei major titles.

Yoshiharu Habu was born in Tokorozawa, Saitama in 1970 and moved to Hachioji, Tokyo before entering kindergarten.

Although Habu was eliminated during the preliminary rounds with a record of 1 win and 2 losses, his parents took him to the shogi club every weekend from October 1978.

[1][2] During his elementary school days, Habu regularly participated in regional and national shogi tournaments, mainly for children.

At these tournaments, Habu played against several children of the same age who also became professional players, including Toshiyuki Moriuchi, Yasumitsu Satō and Manabu Senzaki.

In April 1982, Habu won the 7th Elementary School Meijin tournament [ja] (小学生将棋名人戦, Shōgakusei shōgi meijinsen).

[3] He expressed his desire to become a professional player and asked advice from Katsuyasu Nakajima, the owner of the Hachioji Shogi Club and a student of Tatsuya Futakami.

Habu applied for admission into the Japan Shogi Association's apprentice school[4] as Futakami's student and was accepted as a member in 1982.

He was the third junior high school kid professional in shogi history following Hifumi Kato and Koji Tanigawa.

Although he lost the Ryūō title to Tanigawa the following year, Habu won the Kiō championship four months later in 1991.

[2] Since then he has held at least one of the seven major titles every year since then, and according to custom of the titleholder system he has, therefore, never been referred to by his dan ranking since winning that first championship in 1989.

In 1996 (February 14 to July 30), Habu became the first professional to ever hold seven major titles (Meijin, Ryūō, Kisei, Ōi, Ōza, Kiō, and Ōshō) at the same time.

The loss of the Ryūō title marked the first time in 27 years that Habu was a not one of professional shogi's major titleholders.

All amounts are given in Japanese yen and consist of tournament winnings and other game fees received during the calendar year (January 1 to December 31).

[35] On April 4, 2023, then JSA president Satō announced that he would not seek re-election when his term expired in at the beginning of June 2023.

[37] In the statement, Habu also stated that he decided to be a candidate for the first time because he wanted to "do all he could to help the JSA as it prepared to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2024".

[40][41] In November 2014, he played former World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in an exhibition match sponsored by the Japanese company Dwango.

[42] In March 1996, Habu married actress and singer Rie Hatada [ja] at Hato no Mori Hachiman Shrine in Sendagaya, Tokyo, not far from the head office of the Japan Shogi Association.