Japan Beautiful Pop Singer: Sakai Noriko
—————————————————————————————————————————————————
Noriko Sakai is a J-pop singer and actress. She is married (1998), and has one son (1999). She is particularly popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her best-selling single to date is Aoi Usagi (碧いうさぎ, literally translated as “blue bunny”). Sakai released her debut single, “Otoko no Ko ni Naritai” (男のコになりたい, I Want to Be a Boy) on February 5, 1987, nine days short of her sixteenth birthday. Over 40,000 copies of the single were sold. In the early years of her career, she used the nickname NORI-P (のりピー), although around the mid-1990s she started to distance herself from it. In 2009, Sakai were involved in drugs. On August 7, 2009, Sakai turned herself in to the authorities, and then was placed under arrest. The official charge against Sakai is “suspicion of possessing stimulant drugs,” according to a Tokyo police official. The drug scandal can potentially cost Sakai billions of yen in canceled contracts and other endeavors she was involved in prior. On August 6, 2009, car manufacturer Toyota reportedly stopped showing a commercial, featuring Sakai, on its web site. Sakai’s clothing line “PP rikorino”, consisting of over 150 items were pulled from stores throughout Japan. During the first week of the scandal, Apple Inc’s iTunes Store rated Sakai’s 1995 song Aoi Usagi the number one downloaded song. The rating is based on an eleven-day period. Other Sakai songs among the top 100 downloads include Kagami no Doresu (17th) and Sekaiju no Dare Yori Kitto (18th). On August 9, 2009, Victor Entertainment, the distributor of Sakai’s works, withdrew Sakai’s CDs from stores, and suspended downloads of her songs. On-line stores such as Amazon Japan still sell Sakai’s CDs and DVDs, despite increasing the selling prices as a result of Victor’s move.
Profile
Name: Sakai Noriko 酒井法子
Married name: Takaso Noriko (相法子)
Nickname: Nori-P
Date of birth: 1971-Feb-14
Place of brith: Fukuoka, Japan
Height: 157cm
Weight: 43kg
Horoscope: Aquarius
Blood type: B
Profession: Singer/songwriter, actress, and former 80’s/90’s idol
