Japanese actress Miho Nakayama at the Mandarin Oriental Tokyo in Tokyo, Japan in 2009 to promote Sayonara Itsuka, one of many films in which she appeared. Nakayama was found dead at home on December 6, 2024. - Photo: Junko Kimura/Getty Images
TOKYO: Japanese actress Miho Nakayama, best known for her role in the 1995 film Love Letter, has been found dead in her home in Tokyo’s Ebisu district on Friday (Dec 6). She was 54.
Nakayama was one of the biggest all-round pop stars to emerge from Japan in the 1980s, the period when J-pop was phenomenally successful across Asia and each week’s Oricon chart – the Japanese music chart – was closely followed by fans no less fervent than today’s K-pop supporters.
Well before she found fame as an actress with her sweet, girl-next-door image, as seen in movie, Love Letter, where she played both Hiroko Watanabe and Itsuki Fujii, the sister of the former’s dead fiancé, Nakayama the singer was already a huge star.
Her 1992 single “Sekaijū no Dare Yori Kitto”, made in collaboration with the band Wands, was among her earliest No 1 hits on the Oricon chart.
It was heard everywhere again when Andy Hui Chi-on made a Cantonese cover version called “Wai Duk Nei Si Bat Ho Chui Tei” – or “There Is No One Else Like You”.
She was scheduled to perform a Christmas show in Osaka on the day she died, but the show was cancelled beforehand because of her poor health. She was found collapsed in her bathtub.
Her death was first reported by NHK, Japan’s national broadcaster. The cause of death is under investigation. - South China Morning Post
