Background
Okada was born on August 22, 1967, the second daughter of the Satō family.
岡田 有希子
Okada was born on August 22, 1967, the second daughter of the Satō family.
In Tokyo, Japan. The family later moved to Nagoya. In elementary school, Okada loved to read, especially comic books, and she was a talented artist. In junior high school, Okada wanted to become a singer and applied for every possible audition, anything from major productions to the smallest talent recruitment, hoping to become a star.
She was rejected every time until she was finally accepted to a television talent program, Star Tanjō! On April 21, 1984, Okada released her first single, "First Date".
She was known as "Yukko", which is a common transcript for the name "Yukiko" in the Japanese language. Okada played the leading role in her first television drama Kinjirareta Mariko (The Forbidden Mariko), in 1985.
Her 1986 single "Kuchibiru Network", written by Seiko Matsuda and composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, reached number one on the Oricon weekly singles chart dated February 10, 1986. On April 8, 1986, Okada was found with a slashed wrist in her gas-filled Tokyo apartment, crouching in a closet and crying.
Two hours later, Okada jumped to her death from the seven-story Sun Music Agency building.
The reason for the suicide is still unknown. Her death resulted in many copycat suicides in Japan, soon christened with the neologism "Yukiko Syndrome".