ArtistInfo

Yukiko Okada

1967-1986 JP
Pop

Born: August 22, 1967 Died: April 8, 1986 (aged 18) Yukiko Okada was a Japanese idol and winner of the talent show "Star Tanjō!" in Tokyo, Japan. She also played the leading role in her first television drama Kinjirareta Mariko (The Forbidden Mariko), in 1985. On April 8, 1986, Okada's manager found her with a slashed wrist in her gas-filled Tokyo apartment, crouching in a closet and crying. The manager carried Yukiko out of her apartment and took her to a nearby hospital, her injuries were soon treated. After the hospital they arrived to the Sun Music office. While her manager and the staff were discussing how to avoid a media scandal, Okada ran up the stairs, took off her shoes and jumped to her death from the seven-story Sun Music building. Her death resulted in many copycat suicides in Japan, soon christened with the neologism "Yukiko Syndrome".