Yukiko Okada

Yukiko Okada (岡田有希子) was an 80's Japanese idol. She is perhaps most remembered as the idol that committed suicide at the height of her popularity when she was only 18 years old. This was the only thing I knew about her for years, before I actually started listening to her music.

After auditioning for shows without her parents' knowledge, she won the national talent show "Star Tanjo!" in 1983. She quickly got signed to Sun Music and Pony Canyon Records. Yukiko released four studio albums, eight singles, two compilation albums and two videos during her short three-year career, along with many, many photoshoots to satisfy an average male's perverted cravings.

Okada committed suicide by jumping off the Sun Music building on April 8th 1986. The reason for her death is still unknown. Her death inspired many copycat suicides that took place afterwards. Fans still gather around the Sun Music building today on her birthday and on her death date to pay tribute to "The Eternal Idol".

I found out about Yukko like many other international fans - as the one idol that committed suicide. This was when I was first getting into 80's Japanese music during 2017-2018. Up until 2020, I had only listened to one Yukko song - her first single "First Date". It wasn't until the end of 2020 that I started exploring more of her discography that I realized how good she is. Well, I guess you could argue she was just a cookie-cutter idol who just so happened to have famously died, but my record collection seems to disprove that.

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