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Sayuri Yoshinaga
Born	(1945-03-13)March 13, 1945 (age 80) Shibuya,Tokyo,Japan
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1957–present

Sayuri Yoshinaga (吉永 小百合,Yoshinaga Sayuri, born 13 March 1945) is a Japanese actress and activist. She has won fourJapan Academy Best Actress awards, more than any other actress, and has been called "one of the foremost stars in the postwar world of film."^[1]

Her first media appearance was in the radio drama "Akado Suzunosuke" in 1957, and she has been one of the most popular actresses in Japan since the 1960s, with fans called "Sayur-ists" (Sayurisuto) - for example,Akiyuki Nosaka andTamori.^{[citation needed]}

She made a contract with the movie corporationNikkatsu and played the lead role in many of its films. In 1962, Yoshinaga played a junior-high school girl in her most famous film,Foundry Town, and got the Japan Record Award for"Itsudemo Yume wo" (Always Keep the Dream) with the male singerYukio Hashi. In the 1970s and 1980s, Yoshinaga appeared in films made by other companies, as well as in TV drama serials, commercials, and talk shows. After this period, she returned to films and she has featured in commercials for some big companies such asSharp Aquos,Nissey andKagome. She has been awarded theJapan Academy Prize four times. Yoshinaga has appeared in 124 films, mostly in the leading role.^[2] Yoshinaga starred inKon Ichikawa'sOhan andThe Makioka Sisters.^[3][4] She also starred inYoji Yamada'sKabei: Our Mother andAbout Her Brother.^[5][6]

In 2012, she starred inJunji Sakamoto'sA Chorus of Angels.^[7]

Yoshinaga graduated fromWaseda University, the Schools of Letters, Arts and Sciences II in 1969. Under a tight schedule, she took the runners-up value in the school among the graduates in that year. In 1973, she married Taro Okada, a TV director worked inFuji Television, keeping her maiden name "Yoshinaga" as her stage name. She has no children.^{[citation needed]}

From the 1980s, after playing Yumechiyo in TV drama, ahibakushageisha byAtomic bombings of Hiroshima, she has worked for theanti-nuclear movement. Her most well-known action is reading the poems about atomic bombs over 20 years, and she worked without guarantees for voice guidance in theHiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. She is also famous for supporting aNippon Professional Baseball (NPB) club,Seibu Lions.Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, the former owner of this team is a fan of Yoshinaga, and she bought a pension from Tsutsumi'sSeibu Railway group.^{[citation needed]}

• 1961:Elan d'or Award for Newcomer of the Year^[20]
• 1962:Japan Record Award
• 1984: 9thHochi Film Award - Best Actress forOhan andStation to Heaven^[21]
• 1985:Japan Academy Prize -Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 1986: Kinuyo Tanaka Award
• 1989: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 1997: Japan Record Award for Concept
• 2001: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 2006: Japan Academy Prize - Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
• 2006:Medals of Honour with Purple Ribbon
• 2010:Person of Cultural Merit
• 2015:Kikuchi Kan Prize

Media related toSayuri Yoshinaga at Wikimedia Commons

• Sayuri Yoshinaga atIMDb
• Sayuri Yoshinaga at theJapanese Movie Database(in Japanese)

• 1945 births
• Living people
• Actresses from Tokyo
• Waseda University alumni
• Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon
• Persons of Cultural Merit
• People from Shibuya

• CS1 uses Japanese-language script (ja)
• CS1 Japanese-language sources (ja)
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• BLP articles lacking sources from January 2025
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