Few days ago, one of my favorite singer died. Her name is Izumi Sakai, leader of Zard.
I heard her music from my friend Sung Hyun when I was a high school student. I felt her music was different from other Korean music, and it was a fresh shock to me.
I pray for the repose of her.
< ABOUT ZARD >
Zard (ザード Zādo?) was a Japanese pop group. Originally a group of five members, with lead vocalist Izumi Sakai as group leader. However, members started leaving the band from 1991 to 1993, leaving Sakai as the only original member of the group. Sakai died on May 27, 2007. Until her death, she was part of the record label B-Gram Records, Inc.
- Career
Zard made their debut in February 10, 1991 with a single Good-bye My Loneliness. By their third album Hold Me, it appeared that the only member left in Zard was Izumi Sakai, and from that point on, she was the only member in that group. While she was the only member left, the band’s name did not change.
Sakai was also a very prolific lyricist. She wrote all her own lyrics (except for one song, Onna de Itai (女でいたい Onna de Itai?) from their first album, Good-bye My Loneliness, which was written by Dariya Kawashima (川島だりあ Dariya Kawashima?),[1] and released several books of poetry as well. She also wrote songs for other artists, most notably, for J pop groups Field of View, Wands and Deen. She also wrote the lyrics for and participated in the collaboration for the single “Hateshinai Yume o” featuring J-pop groups Zard, Zyyg, Rev & Wands. The single also featured famed Japanese baseball hero Shigeo Nagashima. Some of her singles were used in anime, such as Slam Dunk, Dragon Ball GT and Detective Conan. The lyrics of Dan Dan Kokoro Hikarete ‘ku by Field of View, the opening theme song of Dragon Ball GT, is by Izumi Sakai. Afterward, Zard covered this song in Today is Another Day album.
Zard was also known for being mysterious. This is partially because her record label did not release too much personal information on their artists, and also because she did not make that many personal appearances. She rarely appeared on any live TV music programs (e.g. TV Asahi’s Music Station), which the main public relations tool for the record industry in Japan, since 1993 or do any public appearances. Her first concert was in 1999, which was held on a cruise ship for a mere 600 people in her fan club (300 entries x2 among 2 million concert ticket requests). Her first real concert tour, “what a beautiful moment tour”, was held in 2004, 13 years after her debut. Almost every single concert was sold out at the time. The tour ended up having 10 concerts spanning 4 months from March to July 2004, with a final concert held in the famed Nippon Budokan.
Zard was the most successful solo female singer in the 1990s (though originally Zard is a group). And Zard is #8 for overall total in Japan.[2] She has had 11 singles reach the #1 spot on the Oricon Singles Charts, and 9 albums reach the #1 spot on the Oricon Album Charts.
Zard has released a total of 42 singles and 17 albums.
- Sakai’s Death
Izumi Sakai passed away on May 27, 2007 at age 40 in Keio University Hospital. She was put in the hospital in June 2006 after discovering she had cervical cancer and had the tumor removed. In April 2007 however, the cancer had spread to her lungs, resulting her re-admittance in the hospital. According to the hospital, she took daily walks every morning. During her walk on May 26, she accidentally fell from the stairs and was discovered at around 5:00 a.m. JST. She was sent to the emergency room, but unfortunately, it was too late.[3]
“We hope that Izumi Sakai, along with her hit songs, will remain in the memory of her fans,” an agency spokesman said.[4]
She had planned to release a new album in the fall, as well as her first live tour in three years to show her fans that she was fighting strongly against her illnesses.
Rumors surfaced that the singer committed suicide, which her management strongly denies. [5]
A memorial service for fans is currently planned to be held on June 27 in Aoyama, Tokyo.
from Wikipedia.
ABOUT THE INCIDENT THAT CAUSED THE DEATH OF MS. IZUMI SAKAI
(ZARD -JPOP)
Here are some remarks concerning the incident that caused the death of Ms. Izumi Sakai at Keio University Hospital (Shinjuku, Tokyo). If there is anything wrong or unclear please share your opinions to make them better and complete. If we believe this is a good suggestion should we inform Tokyo police (and other Zard fans) and request a review of the case and a continuation of the investigation? ( -IMPORTANT: only Japanese fans/citizens have the legal/proper right to make such a request).
Since the incident happened for quite a long time in order to make the police to consider our request/suggestion we (Japanese fans) need to respond with numerous voices.
William A.
Email: kion_2005@yahoo.com
December 31, 2007
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ANALYSIS
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POSSIBILITIES:
There are three possibilities that the incident could happen:
1) Falling over the rail by jumping (suicide).
2) Falling over the rail by slipping.
3) Falling over the rail by an external force acting on her body.
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ANALYSIS OF POSSIBILITY 1:
- If Ms. Sakai’s doctor said the outcome of the medical treatment for her sickness was OPTIMISTIC (It can be verified easily) then ONLY this factor is ENOUGH to rule out this possibility (NO MOTIVE to commit suicide).
- The act such as exercising REGULARLY every morning AT A CERTAIN TIME during her hospitalization is NOT a manifestation of a person in a despair mood (suicide intention).
- The act such as doing exercise (on the day the incident happened) AT THE SAME TIME AS EVERY DAY is NOT a manifestation of a person in a despair mood.
- The act such as taking medicine REGULARLY every day is NOT a manifestation of a person in a despair mood.
- The activity, behavior, reaction of the patient (victim) in those days was normal as every day during her hospitalization (told by other patients & nurses having contact with her in those days). This fact is NOT a manifestation of a person in a despair mood.
- If she jumped from the slope (or from the landing) there must have been her fingerprints of BOTH HANDS on the railing AND her footprints on the railing border at the position where she fell. One question is that why jumping (or dropping herself) at that height (3 meters). It might cause an injury instead of death and that is not what a suicide wants.
- The supposition that the victim sat on the handrail is inappropriate because it is hard to sit on an inclined railing. And if she fell backwards her head or front would land first because her legs were still being caught on the railing when she let herself dropping.
- From psychological aspect those who have (malignant) cancers usually fear to lose their lives in a short period of time rather than fear to suffer pains (anodyne drug, painkiller, morphine can help to relieve pain) or fear for other reasons. Why do they have to find a quicker, more painful way to finish their lives by suicide ? (jumping, in this situation).
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ANALYSIS OF POSSIBILITY 2:
- IN ALL CASES WHEN NO EXTERNAL FORCE APPLYING TO THE BODY, whether the victim slipped and fell forwards (or backwards) on the slope or on the landing, the center of forces [see Note (*) at the end of the message] acting on her body was below the height of the banister and the net force acting on her when she slipped had direction pointing to the ground which pulled her down immediately instead of throwing her up aside. Therefore there is no way to fall over the railing (furthermore the banister is 1.2m in height). In case that she stumbled while walking or running [see Note (**)] down the slope she still fell forwards down in the direction that she was moving along, not the direction across the banister.
- The force caused by slipping was applied at her foot. It produced torsion and rotation about an axis (the axis going through the center of gravity of her body and parallel to the surface of the ground, in this case). THIS FORCE DID NOT THROW HER UP.
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ANALYSIS OF POSSIBILITY 3:
- There might have been NO footprints of the culprit and the victim RIGHT AT THE SPOT from where she was supposed to fall.
- A person walking UP on the slope cannot slip his/her step forwards unless he/she takes a large step. He/she can only slip backwards and might fall forwards. Therefore if he/she falls backwards there must be an external force (a push, a bump, …) acting on him/her from the front.
- Footprint: Was there any change in the moving step PATTERN of the victim and the moving step patterns around the scene ? [see Note (#)]
A) CIRCUMSTANCE OF AN EXTERNAL FORCE ACTING WHEN THE VICTIM WAS STILL ON THE SLOPING SURFACE OR JUST SET FOOT ON THE UPPER LANDING:
- The weight of a person standing on a slope produces a force pulling him/her down along the slope; hence it is easy to lose balance when he/she is on an inclined surface and is suddenly pushed or bumped by someone. The victim could be walking on the way down to the yard or on the way up to the room when the incident happened. She was hit with a force. That external force had a direction pointing outwards & crossing the rail line which was the cause of the incident. Perhaps somebody was running out from the passageway within the building and bumped against (or pushed -did with intention) her that threw her backwards some distance before she fell over the rail. The center of gravity of her body & the center of forces AT THE POSITION JUST BEFORE BEING HIT were HIGHER than the height of the banister AT THE POSITION WHERE SHE FELL OVER. The NET FORCE acting upon her was strong enough to throw her backwards and over the railing. This hypothesis is possible if there are some supportive evidences and it does not contradict any basic facts/factual information/evidences collected.
- For instance: A slope is 5.0 meters long, and 2.0 meters high (at the landing); the banister is 1.2 meters high. A person is at the edge of the landing. The position P at a distance of 1.0 meter (from the edge of the landing down the slope) is 0.4m lower than any position at the landing. Therefore the height of the banister at position P is 0.8m relative to the person at the landing. With a force (strong enough) acting on the person towards the slope & across the banister, the person could possibly be thrown downwards a distance and fall over the railing at position P (because the height of the banister at P is RELATIVELY LOWER than the center of gravity of the person [and the center of forces] when the external force acting on him at the landing).
- Let call M the point at the location where the victim’s footprints [see Note (##)] along her moving direction ended abruptly (HER LAST FOOTPRINT just before the incident happened). Let call the plane Pn a plane (containing M) perpendicular to the surface of the ground and perpendicular to the line L [see Note (###)]. Let call F the point at the spot where her body was found on the ground (where she fell?). If the distance from F to the plane Pn is a long distance (a distance longer than 1.2m … or else, that depends on the real scene) then this is a FACT that proves an external force was acting upon her (somebody bumped or pushed her hard).
- If there were spots of her BACKWARD steps (they can be distinguished by comparing with her normal moving step pattern [see Note (#)]) this is a supportive FACT for the hypothesis.
B) CIRCUMSTANCE OF AN EXTERNAL FORCE ACTING WHEN THE VICTIM WAS ALREADY SOMEWHERE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE UPPER LANDING (SAFETY PLACE):
- It is hard to imagine that a person of about 1.65m high could be falling down over the banister of 1.2m high simply by someone pushing, bumping against, … even with an intensive force (that would cause injury traces on the body). THERE MUST HAVE BEEN SOMEONE WHO HARMED HER INTENTIONALLY.
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NOTE:
(*) Center of forces: is a point where the net
force of a system is supposed to apply.
(**) She wore boots ===> not for running.
(#) The pattern of footprints along the moving
direction. The moving step pattern would
change when there was an obstacle (bumping
to something, for example) in the direction
of moving.
(##) There might have been her fingerprints at
that point, if she kept the hand on the rail
bar when climbing the slope.
(###) The line L is the intersection of the
surface of the ground and the plane Pr which
contains the rail line and perpendicular to
the surface of the ground.
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INFORMATION:
Please refer to the following sources for related information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izumi_Sakai
http://wiki.theppn.org/ZARD
http://www.zardnet.com/
http://zadozadoutyr.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/
http://www.nt2099.com/J-ENT/news/japanese-entertainment-news/japan-more-details-on-death-of-sakai-izumi/
http://bizard.wordpress.com/2007/09/01/zard/
http://www.mimu-net.net/news.php?newsid=995