Yukiko Okada

Okada was born as Satō Kayo (佐藤佳代) on August 22, 1967, the second daughter of the Satō family. The family later moved to Nagoya. In elementary school, Okada loved to read, especially manga, and she was a talented artist. In junior high school, Okada wanted to become a singer and applied for every possible audition, anything from major productions to the smallest talent recruitment, hoping to become a star. She was rejected every time until she was finally accepted to a TV talent program, Star Tanjō! on Nippon Television – similar to Star Search, though the final stage was her singing to get interest from talent agents – singing Kitahara Sawako's MY BOYFRIEND for the audition, and Nakamori Akina's Slow Motion for the final round, which she won in March 1983.

On April 21, 1984, Okada released her first single, "First Date", written by Mariya Takeuchi. She was nicknamed "Yukko" (ユッコ) by her fans, which is a common abbreviation for the name "Yukiko" in the Japanese language.

That year, Okada won Rookie of the Year, and was awarded the 26th Japan Record Awards Grand Prix Best New Artist Award for her third single, "-Dreaming Girl- Koi, Hajimemashite", also written by Takeuchi.

Okada played the leading role in her first television drama Kinjirareta Mariko (The Forbidden Mariko), in 1985. Her 1986 single "Kuchibiru Network", written by Seiko Matsuda and composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, reached number one on the Oricon weekly singles chart dated February 10, 1986.

The Sun Music Building, located in Yotsuya, Tokyo

On April 8, 1986, Okada was found with a slashed wrist in her gas-filled Tokyo apartment, crouching in a closet and crying. She was discovered by a rescue team called in by the apartment's manager after other residents noticed the smell of gas. Okada's manager eventually arrived and took her to the nearby Kitano Aoyama Hospital, where her injuries were treated and was brought to the Sun Music Building. While Fudaka, the manager of the building and the staff were discussing how to avoid a media scandal, Okada ran up to the stairs, took off her shoes and jumped from the seven-story building, resulting in instant death. It was 12:15 PM, JST.[1][2] The reason for the suicide is still unknown, though it has been speculated it was due to Okada wanting a relationship with Tōru Minegishi, who had previously rejected her. This is due to Okada saying "I thought of someone"[3] when replying to why she tried to kill herself at her apartment and to her manager discovering notes written by Okada describing her longing to be with Minegishi. Some of these notes ended with: "I wanted to see him again" and "My heart has nowhere else to go."[4]

Her fans were shocked and shattered by her untimely death. It resulted in many copycat suicides in Japan, soon christened with the neologism "Yukko Syndrome." Okada was cremated and her remains were interred in a family vault at a Buddhist temple in Jōman-ji, Nagoya, Japan.[5][6]

• Yukiko Okada on Myspace
• Yukiko Okada at Find a Grave