Yasuo Watani is a Japanese chromatic harmonica player. He was born in Kyoto, Japan and had his first harmonica lessons with Tadao Kobayashi in 1966. After graduating from Doshisha University (Faculty of Commerce) in 1984 with a degree in Economics, he studied the chromatic harmonica with Helmuth Herold at the Hohner-Konservatorium Trossingen in Germany from 1984 to 1988.