Keiko Fuji

Fuji (sometimes credited as Keiko Fujita) was born in Iwate Prefecture, where her father was a rōkyoku singer. Her mother was a rōkyoku shamisen player. As a child, Fuji sometimes accompanied her parents and sang with them when they were on tour. Her song "Keiko no Yume wa Yoru Hiraku" (Keiko's version of "Yume wa Yoru Hiraku") won the Mass Popularity Award at the Japan Record Awards in 1970. She also performed this song in the 21st Kōhaku Uta Gassen New Year's Eve TV special.

Her debut album, Shinjuku no Onna/Enka no Hoshi Fuji Keiko no Subete (新宿の女/「演歌の星」藤圭子のすべて, Shinjuku Woman/"Star of Enka" All of Keiko Fuji), released 5 March 1970, topped the Oricon album chart for 20 consecutive weeks, and her next album Onna no Blues (女のブルース, Woman's Blues), released 5 July 1970, continued topping that chart for 17 consecutive weeks. She topped the Oricon album chart for a 37 consecutive weeks, an incredible record in Japan's music history. Her debut album's number-one record of 20 consecutive weeks remains the longest consecutive number-one record in Oricon history.

She married the enka singer Kiyoshi Maekawa and retired from singing in 1979, announcing her retirement during a TV show on 30 December of that year. The marriage ended in divorce, after which she emigrated to the United States, where she became active in music again by 1981. There, she married Teruzane Utada, a record producer. Their only child, Hikaru Utada, was born in 1983 in New York City (and later became a record-setting pop star in Japan by their late teens). The couple married and divorced seven times.