Nana Okada

Hiroko Yai (Japanese: 矢井 弘子 , Hepburn: Yai Hiroko , born February 12, 1959) , better known by her stage name Nana Okada (岡田 奈々 , Okada Nana ) , is a Japanese actress and former idol singer.

Nana Okada got her start in show business in the TV Asahi program "Anata o Star Ni!" (You Are a Star!) in 1974. She was signed to NAV Records and released her first single, "Hitorigoto" (Soliloquy), in May 1975.

In the spring of 1976 she released her biggest hit and signature song "Seishun no Sakamichi [ja] " (The Hills of Youth), which reached the Oricon top 30. Other top 40 hits would follow, such as "Wakai Kisetsu" (The Young Season), "Teami no Present" (Hand-knitted Present) and "Soyokaze to Watashi" (The Breeze And I). Her last single was released in 1986.

Nana Okada has also acted in movies and drama series.

In May 1977, a man armed with a knife invaded Okada's apartment and held her captive for five hours before escaping. Okada was injured on both hands, but was otherwise not physically assaulted. The perpetrator was never identified, and Okada suffered a decline in popularity due to the media reporting which damaged her "innocent" image. When author and former yakuza George Abe interviewed Okada for Weekly Asahi Geinō years later, he revealed that he had been her admirer, and that when serving time in the Tokyo Detention House, he had met a fellow inmate who claimed to be the perpetrator of the crime and had beaten him up so severely that he would suffer "lifetime injuries".