Iwasaki Yoshimi (born: June 15, 1961) was a top idol in early 1980s, a first generation 1980s idol debut at the same year as Matsuda Seiko, Kawai Naoko and Kashiwabara Yoshie.

But wait, does her surname sound familiar? Iwasaki Yoshimi? Iwasaki....Hiromi? Yes, Yoshimi is the younger sister of Iwasaki Hiromi (a very big 1970s idol, still an active singer even now).

Her sister: Hiromi made a debut as singer in 1975, and the young Yoshimi admired her and her interest in singing grew stronger. One day a tv producer saw her when she was with her sister and wanted her to work in entertainment as well but their parents strongly opposed it. They thought Yoshimi was too introvert to work in entertainment industry and they didn't want to have two celebrities in their family. One night Hiromi came home late after her job only to see Yoshimi crying in the kitchen after being told by their parents "The entertainment industry don't need two Iwasaki. We absolutely won't allow it". Hiromi told her parents: "What right do you have to destroy my sister's dream?" (*these two sisters have a strong bond).

Somehow they could persuade their parents and Iwasaki Yoshimi made her singing debut in February 21, 1980. In her first year alone, she has won 14 awards. She also performed in Kohaku Uta Gassen 1980. That was the first time in Kohaku history that siblings appeared together in Kohaku Uta Gassen. But both Hiromi and Yoshimi each occupied different slot in team "Red", she was there not as her sister's sidekick but as a legit contestant herself, paired with a proper opponent from team "White" in the song battle. It's inevitable that people keep comparing her to her sister in her entire career, but Yoshimi herself was a top idol in her own right and a proper singer.

* I can't find a complete list of her total song sales, but she has one song with 247k sales and five other songs with 100k sales each. With incomplete data that only shows just 10 songs, it has already accumulated 1,184,000 sales. In her career, Yoshimi has released 34 singles and 22 albums. I wouldn't be surprised if her total sales are somewhere in the range of 2,000,000+ (probably around the level of Ishikawa Hidemi) or even more.

This song is her debut song. Released in February 21, 1980, it reached #19 in Oricon chart but has a total sales of 116,000 sales (on par with some low level Oricon #1 ranked songs). It also won one award.

Her live performances:

^ in "Yoru no Hit Studio". Iwasaki Hiromi (her sister) and Yamaguchi Momoe were also there.

^ also in "Yoru no Hit Studio"

in the 1990s

Yoshimi singing this song in 2009

This one was probably from early 2010s

And.... this was Iwasaki Yoshimi in December 2021:

^ in her 40th career anniversary concert

Iwasaki Yoshimi, June 16, 2023