Saori Yuki

Saori Yuki was born Akiko Yasuda in Gunma, central Japan and raised in Yokohama and was known as such for the first four years of her official career before opting for the alias. She is primarily a singer; however, has been intermittent in her appearances, something which could also be said regarding her foray into acting. She debuted at seventeen with the single Hitchhike Musume ('Hitchhiking girl'), which appeared on King Records. Commercial success would have to wait. At twenty one she had her first bona fide hit when Yoake No Scat ('Scat At Dawn') hit the radio. The single sold one and a half million copies. She followed it with Tegami ('The Letter'), which became the number one single in Japan. She garnered the 12th Japan Record Awards. It would not be her last award. She was a regular on NHK's Koohaku Uta Gassen, the annual year-end variety show. She would also appear on a number of talk shows in the country. She had also branched out into acting as a teenager, but it was for her role as Chikako Numata - where she played the role of a mother of two contrasting sons in the prototypical Japanese family - in The Family Game that she won for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in the Japan Academy Awards in 1983. She and her sister Sachiko toured Japan in 1985 performing a mix of children's songs and pop music. The sisters' collaboration has been ongoing. A collaboration album with the independent jazz/classical orchestra Pink Martini entitled 1969 was released in November 2011. Audiogram distributed the album in Canada.