Yoshiko Yamaguchi

Yoshiko Yamaguchi
山口 淑子
Yamaguchi in the 1940s
Member of the House of Councillors
In office
July 8, 1974 – July 7, 1992
ConstituencyNational district (1974-83)
National PR (1983-1992)
Personal details
Born
Yoshiko Yamaguchi

(1920-02-12)February 12, 1920
Liaoyang, Manchuria, Republic of China
DiedSeptember 7, 2014(2014-09-07) (aged 94)
Tokyo, Japan
NationalityJapanese
Political partyLiberal Democratic Party
Spouses
(m. 1951; div. 1956)
Hiroshi Otaka
(m. 1958; died 2001)
OccupationSinger, actress, journalist, politician
AwardsOrder of the Sacred Treasure, Second Class
Musical career
Also known asYoshiko Ōtaka (大鷹 淑子)
Pan Shuhua (潘淑華)
Shirley Yamaguchi
Li Hsiang-lan (李香蘭)
GenresPopular music
Years active1938–1958
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese李香蘭
Simplified Chinese李香兰
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLǐ Xiānglán
Wade–GilesLi3 Hsiang1-lan2
Yue: Cantonese
JyutpingLei5 Hoeng1 Laan4

Yoshiko Yamaguchi (山口 淑子, Yamaguchi Yoshiko, February 12, 1920 – September 7, 2014) was a Japanese singer, actress, journalist, and politician. Born in China, she made an international career in film in China, Hong Kong, Japan and the United States.

Early in her career, the Manchukuo Film Association concealed her Japanese origin and she went by the Chinese name Li Hsiang-lan (李香蘭), rendered in Japanese as Ri Kōran. This allowed her to represent China in Japanese propaganda movies. After the war, she appeared in Japanese movies under her real name, as well as in several English language movies under the stage name, Shirley Yamaguchi.

After becoming a journalist in the 1950s under the name Yoshiko Ōtaka (大鷹 淑子, Ōtaka Yoshiko), she was elected as a member of the Japanese parliament in 1974, and served for 18 years. After retiring from politics, she served as vice president of the Asian Women's Fund.[1]