Yoko Sugimura ( ja, 杉村陽子 ''Sugimura Yoko'', born November 1, 1974, in

Nagano, Japan Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Univer ...

) is a former

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese gravure idol and race queen. Yoko Sugimura began her modeling career as a race queen for Kure in 1997, where she teamed up with

Fumika Suzuki is a Japanese voice actress, gravure idol and a former race queen in the 1990s. Suzuki's race queen career started already in 1994 when she joined the sugo racing team. The following year, she represented the Japanese record company Avex Trax. ...

. As with Fumika Suzuki, the race queen modeling gave her career a good start. In 1997 she also was Toyota's event girl at the Tokyo Motor Show. In 1998 she appeared as a

K-1 K-1 is a professional kickboxing promotion established in 1993, well known worldwide mainly for its heavyweight division fights and Grand Prix tournaments. In January 2012, K-1 Global Holdings Limited, a company registered in Hong Kong, acquired ...

round girl, at the Tokyo Auto Salon as an event girl for

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

, and in CMs for

Takefuji is a Japanese consumer finance company, or ''sarakin''. On September 28, 2010 it filed a petition for commencement of a corporate re-organisation under the Japanese Corporate Reorganisation Act. Services The Group's principal activity is the pro ...

. She also continued her race queen work, for the Piknik team in

Formula Nippon The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series. It is considered as being the top level of single-seater racing in Japan and regional motorsports in Asia. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and ...

, and was also featured in internet events in

Akihabara is a common name for the area around Akihabara Station in the Chiyoda ward of Tokyo, Japan. Administratively, the area called Akihabara mainly belongs to the and Kanda-Sakumachō districts in Chiyoda. There exists an administrative district ca ...

. In 1999 she released an idol video and photobook, and was once again Toyota's event girl at the Tokyo Motor show. Unlike Fumika Suzuki, who retired as a race queen in 1998, Yoko kept on as a race queen from year 2000 and onwards. For example, in 2000 she was the

Regain Regain Records was a Swedish-based independent record label. The label predominantly released death metal and black metal albums. Regain Records was founded from what remained of the former label, Wrong Again Records, by Per Gyllenbäck in 1997 ...

race queen and in 2001 she promoted Weds Sport. She continued to be very active during the 2000s, appearing at many electronic events, and also continuing her race queen (this time for

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a product ...

) and auto show work, for companies such as

KDDI () is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed on October 1, 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp. (Daini-Denden Inc.), KDD (Kokusai Denshin Denwa) Corp. (itself a former listed state-owned enterprise privatized in 1998), and IDO Corp. It h ...

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Mitsubishi The is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Founded by Yatarō Iwasaki in 1870, the Mitsubishi Group historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 ...

, APEXi and Toyota. According to one of her fan sites, Yoko Sugimura retired in late 2006, after nine years as a model.あっとま〜くようこちゃん

References

Further reading