Yoshiko Yamaguchi
Yoshiko Yamaguchi | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
山口 淑子 | |||||||||||||
Yamaguchi in the 1940s | |||||||||||||
| Member of the House of Councillors | |||||||||||||
| In office July 8, 1974 – July 7, 1992 | |||||||||||||
| Constituency | National district (1974-83) National PR (1983-1992) | ||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||
| Born | Yoshiko Yamaguchi February 12, 1920 Liaoyang, Manchuria, Republic of China | ||||||||||||
| Died | September 7, 2014 (aged 94) Tokyo, Japan | ||||||||||||
| Nationality | Japanese | ||||||||||||
| Political party | Liberal Democratic Party | ||||||||||||
| Spouses | |||||||||||||
| Occupation | Singer, actress, journalist, politician | ||||||||||||
| Awards | Order of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class | ||||||||||||
| Musical career | |||||||||||||
| Also known as | Yoshiko Ōtaka (大鷹 淑子) Pan Shuhua (潘淑華) Shirley Yamaguchi Li Hsiang-lan (李香蘭) | ||||||||||||
| Genres | Popular music | ||||||||||||
| Years active | 1938–1958 | ||||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 李香蘭 | ||||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 李香兰 | ||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||
Yoshiko Yamaguchi (Japanese: 山口淑子 Yamaguchi Yoshiko; Chinese: 山口淑子 Shānkǒu Shūzǐ; 12 February, 1920 – 7 September, 2014) was a Japanese singer, actress, journalist, and politician. Born in China, she made an international career in film in China, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States.
Early in her career, the Manchukuo Film Association concealed her Japanese origin and she went by the Chinese name Li Hsiang-lan (李香蘭), rendered in Japanese as Ri Kōran. This allowed her to represent China in Japanese propaganda movies. After the war, she appeared in Japanese movies under her real name, as well as in several English language movies under the stage name, Shirley Yamaguchi.
After becoming a journalist in the 1950s under the name Yoshiko Ōtaka (大鷹 淑子, Ōtaka Yoshiko), she was elected as a member of the Japanese parliament in 1974, and served for 18 years. After retiring from politics, she served as vice president of the Asian Women's Fund.