Rimi Natsukawa Japanese Singer From Ishigaki

Early life

Rimi Natsukawa was born on 9 October 1973 in Ishigaki, the largest city in the Yaeyama Islands of Okinawa, Japan. She attended Horikoshi High School. Her interest in singing began early, after she heard her father perform Yaeyama folk songs such as "Tsuki nu Kaisha" and "Densaa Bushi". From the age of seven she practised for two hours a day with him, aiming to become an enka singer.

She began winning contests as a child. A local children's singing competition was her first success, and in 1984 she took the grand prize on the MBS television programme Shirōto Meiji-kai. Two years later she won the grand prize at the Nagasaki Kayōsai song festival, becoming the youngest person to have won it up to that time.

Career

After her success in the festival, Natsukawa was scouted at the age of thirteen and moved to Tokyo to prepare for a debut. She debuted in 1989 on the Pony Canyon label as an enka singer under the name Misato Hoshi. Three singles over three years brought little success. After about four years in Tokyo she returned to Okinawa, where she lived with her older sister in Naha and helped at her restaurant, singing for customers each day. Gradually her wish to sing professionally came back, and in 1998 she appeared as an assistant on an Okinawan radio programme, Iwa-chan no Vitamin Radio.

Her former musical director set up a production company for her, and in 1999 she went back to Tokyo and signed with Victor Entertainment. Her re-debut single was "Yūbae ni Yurete", which, like her first releases, did not chart. A turning point came when she watched the Okinawa broadcast of the G8 summit and heard the group Begin play "Nada Sōsō". She asked to record her own version, and it was released in March 2001 as her third single. The song grew in popularity very slowly. It was a hit on Okinawan radio and first entered the Oricon top 100 in May 2002, reaching the top 50 in June and the top 20 in July. That same month she released Minamikaze, a collection of Okinawan cover songs, and in September came her first album, Tida: Tida Kaji nu Umui. She was invited to sing "Nada Sōsō" at the Kōhaku Uta Gassen at the end of 2002, which carried it into the top 10. The single remained on the chart for six years and sold more than 680,000 copies. The two 2002 releases sold roughly 280,000 and 371,000 copies over the roughly two years that they charted.

Until 2004 she continued to release material built around Okinawan songs. One of these, "Warabigami (Yamatoguchi)", a version of a song by Misako Koja, reached the top 20 and was nominated for the Japan Record Award. It was her biggest hit after "Nada Sōsō". The 2003 album Sora no Keshiki followed, and in 2004 she released Kaze no Michi, which put more weight on original songs. She began working with prominent musicians, including Kazufumi Miyazawa and The Gospellers. Her 2005 album Ayakaji no Ne included "Sayōnara Arigatō", written by Kentarō Kobuchi of Kobukuro, and the single's 2006 reissue was her last top 50 entry. Another 2005 single, "Hagushichao", is listed among her notable works.

In 2006 she issued Rimi Natsukawa Selection, a compilation made for non-Japanese Asian markets, which reached number one on the album chart in Taiwan. In 2007 she left her production office but kept releasing music through Victor, including the album Umui Kaji. That year she also released Uta Sagashi: Request Cover Album, a project built on songs that fans had asked her to perform, mostly Japanese popular songs. It became her best-selling release of material not written by her since 2003. A second Uta Sagashi album followed in February 2010 and was her first in both Japanese and Chinese. Her 2009 albums include Kokoro no Uta and Okinawa Uta: Chikyū no Kaze o Kanjite. In all, the records list fifteen albums and five singles under her name from 2002 to 2009, in the genres of J-pop and enka.

Recognition

Natsukawa is best known for "Nada Sōsō", her 2001 single, which entered the Kōhaku Uta Gassen broadcast in 2002 and went on to sell well. Her cover of "Warabigami (Yamatoguchi)" earned a nomination for the Japan Record Award, and Rimi Natsukawa Selection topped the Taiwanese album chart. As of July 2025 her YouTube channel had about 75,000 subscribers.