Izumi Sakai - Professional Career

Professional Career

For the next two years following her scouting, she was a Toei "karaoke queen" and a promotional model appearing in television commercials for Japan Air System. The following year Sakai was a Nissin race queen. During her time as a model she also released Nocturne, a book of photos and Sexy Shooting, a video. In 1990, Taiko Nagato, music producer for Being Corporation, noted her potential as a singer/songwriter. Through this connection, she created a Being subsidiary called Sensui (same Kanji characters as Izumi) and started her career taking the name Izumi Sakai. In addition to taking a new name, Sakai revised her year of birth from 1967 to 1969. However, her earlier career as a model continued to haunt her. As her model books continued to sell in used markets as well as internet auctions, she quietly expressed regret about it. In a rare interview, Sakai said that a major inspiration to her lyrics was her "difficult past."

In 1991, Sakai joined the five-member pop group Zard as lead vocalist. The group name did not have any particular meaning except Sakai felt that word Zard sounded like a rock group. She also took the name as derived from words such as "blizzard" and "wizard." The group’s name very quickly became synonymous with Sakai herself, and Sakai wrote the lyrics to all of Zard's songs except Onna de Itai and Koionna no Yuuutsu, both of which were written by Daria Kawashima. By 1993, the four male band members left the group but Sakai chose to keep the Zard name throughout her career. Izumi Sakai was Zard’s sole member at the time of the band’s debut, although between late 1991 and early 1993 four other members were introduced.

The melodies of early Zard hits were written by prominent Japanese composers, most notably Seiichirō Kuribayashi and Tetsurō Oda. Izumi Sakai wrote nearly all of the lyrics to Zard songs, totalling over one hundred fifty. A veteran recording producer described that while most artists communicate through the transparent glass in the recording studio, Sakai preferred covering the glass with a curtain.

Her 1991 first single, "Good-bye My Loneliness," sold very well, but her next two faltered. The Good-bye My Loneliness promotion video depicts a youthful and energetic Sakai. A decade after her debut, she listed this song as one of her most memorable pieces, especially because she had to sing it over a hundred times to get the recording right. Her fourth single, "Nemurenai Yoru o Daite" (Hold me through the sleepless night) was extremely successful, leading to four television appearances. And her best was still to come.

Izumi Sakai released "Makenaide" on January 27, 1993, her sixth single which appealed to the Japanese public. Released at a time that is now seen as the beginning of Japan's post economic bubble era when the Nikkei 225 Index had shrunk in value by a third in only three years, "Makenaide" (Don't Give Up) became known as the theme song of the country's Lost Decade." While Sakai commented on the television show Music Station that it would be a song to encourage men taking college and company employment examinations, many people said this song helped them cope with difficult issues such as school bullying. What is notable about "Makenaide" is that Zard fans’ favorite phrase, "Run through Until the End" was originally "Do Not Give Up until the End". "Makenaide" has been used as a theme song for the Nippon Television program 24-hour TV, an annual charity program hosted live by celebrities for a whole day. Sakai said that she was honored and looked forward to watching 24-hour TV. Overall, "Makenaide" sold nearly 2 million copies. Later in 1993 she was ranked the top artist in CD sales and second as a lyricist.

Sakai produced 42 singles as well as 11 albums and 5 compilations in her lifetime. In addition to "Makenaide," she produced two other singles that sold over a million copies. Six of her albums as well as her first three compilations also surpassed the one-million mark, an unprecedented record. In record sales, Izumi Sakai is considered one of the most successful Japanese singers ever. This is remarkable, given that the height her career coincided with Japan's 1991 stock and real-estate market collapse and 1997 banking crises. In total CDs sold currently exceeds 30 million making Zard the eighth best-selling artist in Japan.

Since 2000, Sakai’s CD sales had declined but her death triggered an increase in CD sales. For example, her fifth compilation, Golden Best: 15th Anniversary, released in May 2006, had actually slipped to the top 300, but surged to No. 3 in the rankings and became the sixth highest-selling album after her death. In the seven days to June 4, 2007, it sold 41,000 copies, a sixtyfold increase from the previous week. As of August 2007, Sakai is ranked fourth in all-time female album sales, just ahead of Hikaru Utada, at 19.2 million copies (see Zard).

Izumi Sakai sold more CDs than any female vocalist during the 1990s, surpassing even Namie Amuro. Unlike Amuro, who won two consecutive Japan Record Awards in 1996 and 1997, an unprecedented record until broken in 2004 by Ayumi Hamasaki, Zard did not win a single award. Sakai may have refused award nominations on the grounds that she did not want to perform live on screen, a requirement to accept them.

While many of her songs were intended to encourage other people, her 42nd and final single, "Heart ni Hi o Tsukete," was different. After Sakai died, a staff member revealed an email in which Sakai wrote that she felt that the song was written to encourage herself.