Noriko Sakai

is a Japanese singer and actress. Under her former stage name , Sakai released her first single, on February 5, 1987, nine days short of her seventeenth birthday. Over 40,000 copies of the single were sold. She is particularly popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her best-selling single to date is "Aoi Usagi". In August 2009, Sakai was arrested on suspicion of possession and abuse of drugs and sentenced to probation for three years. She divorced her husband after the incident and temporarily stayed away from the media circle. After her probation ended, she began rehearsals for the theater, and signed on with Office Nigun Niiba, as a first step towards returning to the media community. On May 1, 2021, she left Office Nigun Niiba and joined Smile. Biography Noriko Sakai was born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She made her debut as an idol singer in 1986. Sakai released her first single, on February 5, 1987, nine days short of her sixteenth birthday. Over 40,000 copies of the single were sold. In the early years of her career, she used the nickname , although around the mid-1990s she started to distance herself from it.