The death of Japanese singer-actress Miho Nakayama has been ruled an accident.
Her management agency Big Apple released a statement via her official site on Dec 8 to make public the results of her autopsy.
The 54-year-old was pronounced dead at her residence in Shibuya, Tokyo, on Dec 6 after an acquaintance found her collapsed in the bathroom of her home around noon that day.
The statement said an autopsy found that the star died due to “an unexpected accident that occurred while she was taking a bath”, and that no foul play was involved. It did not provide details on the nature of the accident.
It added: “We are deeply saddened by this sudden tragedy and we thank everyone for the warm support and concern we have received.”
The star of Japanese director Shunji Iwai’s romance film Love Letter (1995), who also acted opposite Taiwanese-Japanese heart-throb Takeshi Kaneshiro in the drama Love 2000 (2000), had been slated to perform at a Christmas concert in Osaka on the day of her death. The concert was cancelled suddenly that day, with her official site stating that she felt unwell.
The other legs of her Christmas concert, one in Yokohama on Dec 10 and another in Tokyo on Dec 15, have been cancelled. Ticket holders have been offered refunds.
Her former husband, writer-composer Hitonari Tsuji, 65, resides in France with their 20-year-old son and has a blog.
He wrote on Dec 8: “I received a piece of sudden and sad news and took a day off from writing my daily diary to spend the day praying. I was worried about my son and took time to be with him the whole of yesterday (Dec 7)... My son is trying his best. Everyone, if it is possible, please watch over him gently. If you could do so, that would make me really happy as a father.” — The Straits Times/ANN
