Akiko Yano

Who is Akiko Yano?

Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer. She was born as Akiko Suzuki in Tokyo and raised in Aomori, Aomori, and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. Her vocals and singing style has often been compared to the contemporary English singer Kate Bush.

She has recorded with Yellow Magic Orchestra and its members Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono, and Yukihiro Takahashi, as well as Swing Out Sister, Pat Metheny, The Chieftains, Lyle Mays, members of Little Feat, David Sylvian, Mick Karn, Kenji Omura, Gil Goldstein, Toninho Horta, Mino Cinelu, Jeff Bova, Charlie Haden, Peter Erskine, Anthony Jackson, David Rhodes, Bill Frisell, Thomas Dolby, the band Quruli, Rei Harakami as yanokami, and her daughter Miu Sakamoto.

She married and soon after divorced Makoto Yano, a producer of her first recording. She later married fellow musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, with whom she had a daughter, Miu Sakamoto. Yano later separated from him in 1992 and they eventually divorced in August 2006.