Akiko Yano is a Japanese pop and jazz musician and singer. She was born Akiko Suzuki in Tokyo and raised in Aomori, Aomori, and later began her singing career in the mid-1970s. Her vocals and singing style have been compared to British singer Kate Bush She has recorded with Yellow Magic Orchestra and its members Ryuichi Sakamoto, Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, as well as with 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, the producer of her first recording. She later married fellow musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, with whom she had a daughter, Miu Sakamoto. Yano separated from him in 1992, and the couple was divorced in August 2006. 

February 15th, 1955 in Aomori (Age 69)