Eri Sugai (菅井えり, Sugai Eri; 1961 – December 21, 2016) was a Japanese vocalist, composer and arranger. She has been…
Eri Sugai (菅井えり, Sugai Eri; 1961 – December 21, 2016) was a Japanese vocalist, composer and arranger. She has been compared to Enya in that she "multitracked her voice into angelic choruses, soaring over spare but emotional arrangements", She lent her talents to more than 1,000 television commercials, and produced five solo albums, in addition to one under the name of Stella Mirus and two with her husband, Itaru Watanabe, from 2000 until her death. In 2017, Universal Japan released her album, Skip!, recorded in 1986, a 10-track album of 'Light Mellow' music. There is also an edition called Skip! +4 which contains four bonus tracks.
Famous People Born in 1961
1961: 217 people
Kiyotaka Matsui (松井 清隆, Matsui Kiyotaka; born January 4, 1961) is a former Japanese football player. He played for…
Kiyotaka Matsui (松井 清隆, Matsui Kiyotaka; born January 4, 1961) is a former Japanese football player. He played for Japan national team.
Toshiro Yanagiba (柳葉 敏郎, Yanagiba Toshirō; born January 3, 1961) is a Japanese actor.
Yuji Yaku (born 3 January 1961) is a Japanese bobsledder. He competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics and the 1988 Winter…
Yuji Yaku (born 3 January 1961) is a Japanese bobsledder. He competed at the 1984 Winter Olympics and the 1988 Winter Olympics.
Hitoshi Saito (斉藤 仁, Saitō Hitoshi; January 2, 1961 – January 20, 2015) was a Japanese judoka who won two consecutive…
Hitoshi Saito (斉藤 仁, Saitō Hitoshi; January 2, 1961 – January 20, 2015) was a Japanese judoka who won two consecutive gold medals at the Olympic games.
Fumihiko Imamura (今村文彦, Imamura Fumihiko; born September 24, 1961) is a Japanese academic, civil engineer, and Director…
Fumihiko Imamura (今村文彦, Imamura Fumihiko; born September 24, 1961) is a Japanese academic, civil engineer, and Director of the International Research Institute of Disaster Science at Tohoku University in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture. After the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, Imamura was prominent amongst those who proposed that December 26 should be an international day of commemoration. He argued that the simple idea could be effective in preparing people for the giant waves.
Mika Toba (鳥羽 美花, Toba Mika; 1961) is a Japanese katazome dye artist. Her art mainly incorporates motifs and landscapes…
Mika Toba (鳥羽 美花, Toba Mika; 1961) is a Japanese katazome dye artist. Her art mainly incorporates motifs and landscapes from Vietnam - a country she has visited over 50 times since the 1990s. Her art has been displayed at the Kennin-ji temple in Kyoto and at the Ho Chi Minh City Museum of Fine Arts, among other places. She is a graduate of the Kyoto City University of Arts (M.A.). Toba was awarded the Cultural Testimonial Award by the Vietnamese Government in 2005 and the Japanese Foreign Minister's Commendation in 2012 (gaimu daijin hyōei (外務大臣表彰)). She was the subject of a NHK World documentary first broadcast in January 2015.
Franz Waldenberger is professor for Japanese economy at LMU Munich and the director of the German Institute for…
Franz Waldenberger is professor for Japanese economy at LMU Munich and the director of the German Institute for Japanese Studies (DIJ).
Akiyoshi Kitaoka (北岡 明佳, Kitaoka Akiyoshi; born August 19, 1961) is a professor of psychology at the College of…
Akiyoshi Kitaoka (北岡 明佳, Kitaoka Akiyoshi; born August 19, 1961) is a professor of psychology at the College of Letters, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan, who has been referred to as "a master of optical art". In 1984, he received a BSc from the Department of Biology, University of Tsukuba, Tsukuba, Japan, where he studied animal psychology (burrowing behavior in rats) and (at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience) neuronal activity of the inferotemporal cortex in macaque monkeys. After his 1991 PhD from the Institute of Psychology, University of Tsukuba, he specialized in visual perception and visual illusions of geometrical shape, brightness, color, in motion illusions and other visual phenomena like Gestalt completion and perceptual transparency, based on a modern conception of Gestalt psychology. The authors of a review of the last 25 years of motion psychophysics wrote: At about the same time that the Pinna illusion was published, Akiyoshi Kitaoka started to produce seemingly unending variants of images that contain illusory motion. Perhaps the most famous of these, entitled "Rotating snakes", involves several components, as, perhaps, all good illusions do... The Rotating Snakes peripheral drift illusion has been widely circulated, as have many of his other images. Backus and Oruc wrote that Kitaoka created these images by a kind of "evolutionary process": "Patterns that gave rise to the maximum illusory motion were selected, and new patterns were made by varying them in an iterative cycle." In 2008, his designs were the inspiration for the experimental pop band Animal Collective's critically acclaimed album Merriweather Post Pavilion, which features a leaf-covered optical illusion. He was asked by Jeff Koons to provide illusions for the interior packaging of Lady Gaga's 2013 album Artpop, and a version of his "Hatpin urchin" image appears on the CD itself.
Ryo Terakado (寺神戸 亮, Terakado Ryō; born 1961 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia) is a Japanese violinist and conductor who…
Ryo Terakado (寺神戸 亮, Terakado Ryō; born 1961 in Santa Cruz, Bolivia) is a Japanese violinist and conductor who specializes in historically informed performance. He also plays the viola, viola d'amore and violoncello da spalla. He has been teaching at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague and the Toho Gakuen School of Music.
Tsuyoshi Nagano (長野 剛, Nagano Tsuyoshi) (born 1961) is a Japanese illustrator most famous for doing the cover artwork…
Tsuyoshi Nagano (長野 剛, Nagano Tsuyoshi) (born 1961) is a Japanese illustrator most famous for doing the cover artwork for the Romance of the Three Kingdoms games by Koei since the 1980s. His art style is realism and surrealism. He also has done the Japanese editions of novels such as the New Jedi Order, Jedi Quest, Last of the Jedi, Dark Nest, and Shatterpoint, as well as illustrations for Nobunaga's Ambition and Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack.
Miho Imada (Japanese: 今田 美穂; born 1962) is a sake brewmaster at Imada Shuzō in Akitsu, Hiroshima. Imada has a…
Miho Imada (Japanese: 今田 美穂; born 1962) is a sake brewmaster at Imada Shuzō in Akitsu, Hiroshima. Imada has a reputation for making some of the finest sake in the world.
Junya Watanabe (born 1961) is a Japanese fashion designer. He was mentored by Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo.…
Junya Watanabe (born 1961) is a Japanese fashion designer. He was mentored by Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo. He continues to work for Comme des Garçons; his atelier is located on the second floor of its Tokyo headquarters, and he produces four shows a year in Paris.
Hiroaki Kitano (北野 宏明; born 1961 in Tokyo) is a Japanese scientist, head of the Systems Biology Institute, Senior…
Hiroaki Kitano (北野 宏明; born 1961 in Tokyo) is a Japanese scientist, head of the Systems Biology Institute, Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of the Sony Group Corporation, Chief Executive Officer of Sony Research Inc. and Sony Computer Science Laboratories, Inc.; a Group Director of the Laboratory for Disease Systems Modeling at and RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences; and a professor at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST). Kitano is known for developing AIBO, and the robotic world cup tournament known as Robocup.
Rei Naito (内藤 礼, Naito Rei; born 1961) is a Japanese artist. Naito's work intersects with minimalism, conceptual art…
Rei Naito (内藤 礼, Naito Rei; born 1961) is a Japanese artist. Naito's work intersects with minimalism, conceptual art, and environmental art, exploring the ways in which human existence is shaped, felt, and made evident amidst its natural surroundings. Using organic and found materials and creating immersive environments that interact with sound, light, and atmosphere, Naito's practice takes a strong interest in the intimate, ambient, and often transient encounters that arise between individuals and artworks. Naito represented Japan at the 47th Venice Biennale (1997) and exhibited her installation work One Place on Earth (Chijōni hitsotsu no basho o) in the Japan Pavilion, filling the whole of the interior with the immersive piece. Naito is also known for her collaboration with architect Ryue Nishizawa of SANAA on the Teshima Art Museum, where her work Matrix, the single artwork on display, utilizes organic forms to accentuate the porosity between phases of the natural world. In recent years, Naito has also created smaller-scale sculptural works that derive from human forms, alongside her extant abstraction-based installation practice. Matrix (2010), along with Being Given (2001), are her two permanent installation works, both located within the Seto Island Sea. Smaller scale sculptural works reimagine mundane objects by collaborating and altering exhibition spaces and ambient environments. These works include pillow for the dead (1998) exhibited in the Tokyo National Museum, as well as The joys were greater (2015) shown in Gallery Koyanagi. Her work has been widely exhibited and held in collections at numerous institutions across the globe including the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, the New Museum, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, the National Gallery Singapore, and the Museum für Moderne Kunst.
Shozin Fukui (福居ショウジン, Fukui Shōjin; 29 July 1961 – 2 April 2026) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He was…
Shozin Fukui (福居ショウジン, Fukui Shōjin; 29 July 1961 – 2 April 2026) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. He was best known for his contributions to the cyberpunk genre.
Atsuki Satō (佐藤 敦紀（あつき）, Satō Atsuki; born 1961), sometimes erroneously identified in English as Atsunori Satō, is a…
Atsuki Satō (佐藤 敦紀（あつき）, Satō Atsuki; born 1961), sometimes erroneously identified in English as Atsunori Satō, is a Japanese film director, visual effects supervisor, special effects director, and film editor. He won the award for Best Film Editing at the 40th Japan Academy Prize for his work on Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi's Shin Godzilla and was nominated for the Best Visual Effects accolade at the 16th Asian Film Awards for his work on Higuchi's Shin Ultraman.