Akiko Matsumoto (松本 明子, Matsumoto Akiko; born 8 April 1966 in Takamatsu, Kagawa) is a Japanese TV personality and…Akiko Matsumoto (松本 明子, Matsumoto Akiko; born 8 April 1966 in Takamatsu, Kagawa) is a Japanese TV personality and actress.
Kimiko Itō or Kimiko Itoh (伊藤 君子, Itō Kimiko; born July 11, 1946) is a Japanese jazz singer. She was born on the island…Kimiko Itō or Kimiko Itoh (伊藤 君子, Itō Kimiko; born July 11, 1946) is a Japanese jazz singer. She was born on the island of Shikoku in Kagawa Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from Musashino Art University with a degree in oil painting, she studied under Yasushi Sawada. In 1982, she made her debut with her first jazz album, "Birdland". In 1989, she released the album "フォロー・ミー(FOLLOW ME)" simultaneously in Japan and the United States. It ranked 16th in the Radio & Records Contemporary Jazz charts. Swing Journal (スイングジャーナル) voted Kimiko Number 1 female vocalist in 1988–1996. In 2004, her cover of the song "River of Crystals" from her album "Follow Me" was featured in the Mamoru Oshii-directed film Ghost in the Shell: Innocence.
Shizuko Kasagi (Japanese: 笠置 シヅ子, Hepburn: Kasagi Shizuko; August 25, 1914 – March 30, 1985) was a Japanese jazz singer…Shizuko Kasagi (Japanese: 笠置 シヅ子, Hepburn: Kasagi Shizuko; August 25, 1914 – March 30, 1985) was a Japanese jazz singer and actress. At the peak of her fame in the immediate post-war era, she earned the nickname the "Queen of Boogie" (ブギの女王, Bugi no Joō). Kasagi frequently sang songs composed by Ryōichi Hattori, including 1947's "Tokyo Boogie-Woogie", which remains her best-known work. Yoshinori Gyobe, a professor at Nihon University, said that with Hattori's bright boogie rhythms and Kasagi's lively singing of melodies that did not exist in Japan, the duo changed the image of Japanese music.
