is a Japanese ''

kayōkyoku is a Japanese pop music genre, which became a base of modern J-pop. ''The Japan Times'' described ''kayōkyoku'' as "standard Japanese pop" or "Shōwa period, Shōwa-era pop". ''Kayōkyoku'' represents a blend of Western and Japanese musical s ...

'' singer. She also sings

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

chanson A (, ; , ) is generally any Lyrics, lyric-driven French song. The term is most commonly used in English to refer either to the secular polyphonic French songs of late medieval music, medieval and Renaissance music or to a specific style of ...

canzone Literally 'song' in Italian, a canzone (; : ''canzoni''; cognate with English ''to chant'') is an Italian or Provençal song or ballad. It is also used to describe a type of lyric which resembles a madrigal. Sometimes a composition which ...

, and

min'yō , ''Nihon min'yō'', Japanese ''min'yō'' or Japanese folk music is a genre of traditional Music of Japan, Japanese music. Characteristics Styles Many ''min'yō'' are connected to forms of work or to specific trades and were originally su ...

. She made her debut in 2005. She attended the

59th NHK Kōhaku Uta Gassen The , referred to from hereon as "Kōhaku", was aired on December 31, 2008 from NHK Hall in Japan. The music show on New Year's Eve is broadcast on both television and radio, and divides the most popular music artists of the year into competing t ...

. Her song reached number-one on Japan's

Oricon , established in 1999, is the holding company at the head of a Japanese corporate group that supplies statistics Statistics (from German language, German: ', "description of a State (polity), state, a country") is the discipline that ...

charts in January 2009. This song made her the eldest singer to reach the number-one position on single charts in Oricon history. The single was on the charts for 64 weeks and sold 568,334 copies during that time.

Discography

Albums

* (2006) * ''Second Story'' (2008) * (2009) * ''Encore: Jazz Standard'' (2010) * * * * ''Junko Akimoto BEST'' (2014)

Singles

* (2005) * (2007) * (2008) * (2009) * (2010) * * * * * (2015) * "Rose" (2015) * (2016)

References

External links

*
Official website
1947 births Living people Japanese women pop singers Japanese women jazz singers Japanese jazz singers Singers from Tokyo 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers {{Japan-singer-stub