Sanae Kimura (; born 17 May 1968), known by her birth name of Sanae Jōnouchi (), is a Japanese enka singer, actress and radio presenter.

Life and career

Born in

Kamisu is a city located in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 95,384 in 40,759 households and a population density of 649 persons per km2. The percentage of the population aged over 65 was 23.6%. The total area of t ...

, while in her second year of junior high school Jōnouchi made her singing debut participating in the 'All Japan Enka Championship', a music competition organized by Tokyo 12 Channel (now

TV Tokyo JOTX-DTV (channel 7), branded as and known colloquially as , is a television station headquartered in the Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower in Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo, Japan, owned and operated by the subsidiary of listed certified b ...

) and

CBS Sony , often abbreviated as SMEJ or simply SME, and also known as Sony Music Japan for short (stylized as ''SonyMusic''), is a Japanese music arm for Sony. Founded in 1968 as CBS/Sony, SMEJ is directly owned by Sony, Sony Group Corporation and is ...

. In 1985 she entered the popular idol group Onyanko Club, and in 1986 she made her solo record debut with the single ''Ajisai-bashi''; the song topped the

Oricon Singles Chart The Oricon Singles Chart is the Japanese music industry-standard singles popularity chart issued daily, weekly, monthly and yearly by Oricon. Chart rankings are based on physical singles' sales. Until 2017, Oricon did not track download sales. In J ...

, the first song in the enka genre to achieve this result. After the group disbanded, she appeared in several television shows, started an acting career on stage, and hosted the radio program ''Jōnouchi sanae no hātofuru daiarī'' ("Sanae Jonouchi's Heartful Diary"). In 1995, she married the television director and producer Tadahiro Kimura. In 2016, Jōnouchi was the recipient of the Japan Society of Composers Excellence Award at the

58th Japan Record Awards The took place at the New National Theater in Tokyo on December 30, 2016. The ceremony was televised in Japan on TBS. Presenters * Yūki Amami * Shin'ichirō Azumi (TBS announcer) Winners and winning works Grand Prix * Kana Nishino — ...

. On 23 October 2019, she released ''Sanae Uta'', her first studio album in 32 years.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jonouchi, Sanae 1968 births Living people Onyanko Club People from Ibaraki Prefecture Japanese women singers