Junko Ohashi, a Japanese singer became interested in music at a very young age. She initially started off with the hard-rock genre of music but soon got motivated to switch to a softer genre. Despite suffering from esophagus cancer, she’s still in the business of making music.
Ohashi was part of a band when she began to pursue her career in music, and at about the same time she met her husband Ken Sato (Daniel) who was also in the entertainment industry. Her fame began and spread in the late 1970s and early 80s and has left an indelible mark in the history of Japanese music.
One of her most notable songs in recent times is known as ‘Telephone Number’ however she had other hits such as ‘Twilight My Love’, ‘Silhouette Romance’, and ‘Ai wa Toki wo Koete’.
Junko Ohashi was Part of a Band in College
Born on April 26, 1950 (some sites claim her birth year is 1956), Junko is the oldest of 4 children born to her parents. She was born and bred in Yubari, Hokkaido, Japan, and attended Yubari North High School as well as Fuji Women’s Junior College.
The Yubari-born always had a passion for music and decided to follow said passion. By the time she was in college, she joined a band and began to attract attention to herself with her unique vocal capabilities.
At the beginning of her musical career, Junko was known to sing hard rock, however, with time and motivation from other artists such as Sergio Mendes, Brasil ’66, Janis Joplin, and other soul singers, she transitioned to soulful music.
Moving on, Ohashi got a job at HBC in Yubari where she worked as a late-night DJ.
Junko Ohashi’s Transition to Professional Singing
This Japanese singer made her professional debut in June of 1974 after moving to Tokyo and joining a band with her friends. At the time, she was also a part-time staff of Yamaha Music Foundation and auditioned for Philips recording label company and won a record deal.
After this, Junko Ohashi made her debut with the ‘Feeling Now’ album working with the record label.
Before the decade ended, Junko had, as a supporting act, gone on a tour with Kiyohiko Ozaki. She also moved to Kitajima Music Office where she recorded and released some more songs.
‘Paper Moon’ which is known to be one of her widely recognized songs and the one that put her in limelight, was released in 1976.
With the success of this album, the Japanese Soul singer formed a band in 1977 and it was named Junko Ohashi & Minoya Central Station.
She and her songs gained so much acclaim that ‘Tasogare My Love’ one of her songs, was used as the theme song for the drama ‘Shishi no Gotoku’. With this, the song became her biggest hit and even earned her a gold prize during the 20th Japan Record Awards.
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She Got Married in 1979
Ohashi’s husband whom she got married to in 1979 is a Japanese composer, arranger, and keyboardist named Ken Sato (Daniel). He has worked with a lot of artists and the couple worked together on a couple of songs. He was very instrumental in the band created by Junko.
Ohashi and Sato met when he was working at Yamaha’s LM production room.
She Showed Support for her Hometown During their Financial Crisis
In 2007, Junko was part of several causes which was aimed at helping her hometown, Yubari after the city went bankrupt. Yubari incurred a debt of about 150 million pounds and was forced to take severe measures to curb the situation.
In March, she was part of a support concert for her hometown and in July, she released an album known as a support charity cover album for them.
The support charity cover album happened in form of a challenge where she selected some songs from the district of Hokkaido.
74-Year-old Junko Ohashi was Diagnosed with Cancer in 2018
The ‘Telephone Number’ singer was diagnosed with esophagus cancer in 2018. Just a year before the celebration of her 45th anniversary as a singer. Junko Ohisha encountered this setback and had to begin treatment for it.
A year later, in March 2019, it was announced that she won the battle against cancer and planned on resuming her singing career.
Upon her full recovery, Ohashi released the ‘Terra 3’ album. Alive and kicking, the 74-year-old released 7” Single and EP and their remakes as well as covers of other songs, all since 2021.
