English translation

ZARD was an extremely popular one-woman band in the 1990s. 

Sakai Izumi (born: February 6, 1967), real name: Kamachi Sachiko, worked as promotional model in her early 20s (around 1989-1990)  for all kind of projects/products from Toei karaoke machine to an airline campaign and even worked as grid girl / umbrella girl in racing events, while also appeared as extras in some dramas and variety shows, although she continued to have a strong desire to be singer.

Before ZARD: 

^ Kamachi Sachiko when she was modelling as "Toei Karaoke Queen"

^ (1:43) playing small role in drama, the girl in light blue dress

^ Kamachi Sachiko (girl with brown jacket) in a variety show. There's Sagara Haruko, the short haired female host.

In August 1990, Kamachi Sachiko went to audition for B.B Queen backing vocal group (<-- the trio backing vocal girls later formed their own idol trio called Mi-Ke) but she got rejected. A producer recognized her talent and formed a group called ZARD with her as the sole member. Kamachi Sachiko started to use the stage name: Sakai Izumi.

ZARD made its debut on February 10, 1991 as one person band. Starting from her second single, four more members joined (guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboardist) but half of them left after their 5th single and the other half left after their 7th single, so once again ZARD became a one person band. ZARD is basically Sakai Izumi herself.

In her career, ZARD / Sakai Izumi has released a total of 45 singles, 11 original albums, 4 compilation albums, 5 "Best of" albums, and 1 live album. 

How big was ZARD at its peak?  (*P.S: really REALLY big!!)

- 12 Oricon #1 ranked singles and 11 Oricon #1 ranked albums

- 3 singles sold more than 1 million copies each; and a bunch of singles with 700k-800k sales each

- 2 original albums with 2 millions+ sales each, 3 albums with 1 million+ sales each

- 1 compilation album with 2 millions+ sales

- 1 "Best of" album with 3 millions+ sales!!!, one more with 1.49 millions sales, and another one with 943k sales.

-  Total sales (all singles + all albums) : 37,700,000 copies

-  3rd highest selling Japanese singer of 1990s, THE highest selling Japanese female singer of 1990s.

-  10th highest selling Japanese singer of all time (as of May 2023)

Sakai Izumi was also a talented songwriter. Most of ZARD songs were written by herself. She even wrote songs for other singers like Teresa Teng, WAND, etc. She has written about 150 songs in her career.

Yet there's something unique about her: Sakai Izumi very rarely appeared on TV. Despite how huge ZARD was, she was recorded to appear on TV only seven times in her life from 1992-1993. She was also very private about her personal life. According to her producer, she felt ill when she appeared on music program and she wasn't good at speaking. One of ZARD former members also said that Sakai Izumi had extreme stage fright.

About this song

Released on January 27, 1993 as their sixth single, this song reached #1 in Oricon chart with 1,645,552 sales. It also reached #1 in Oricon monthly chart of February 1993. At the end of the year, this song was ranked #6 in Oricon yearly chart of 1993. This is her first million selling song and her highest selling song. With this song, ZARD made a breakthrough from a "normal" big singer into someone really huge. Like most of ZARD songs, this song's lyrics were written by Sakai Izumi herself. This song has been covered by 7 singers from 2003-2019.

More than just a hit song, "Makenaide" has been used as cheer up song for all kind of ocassions from cheering up salarymen during Japan economic bubble burst era in early 1990s to students taking entrance exam to highschool baseball tournament, etc. It's a legendary song!

*The song was used as ending theme for a drama in 1993. Can't find the video.

Her live performance:

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Hu4y1y7Ep

^ in "Music Station", February 5, 1993. There were also Kyon2 and Matchy in the studio. Nakayama Miho didn't come but her million selling song was also ranked in "Music Station Top 10" in that episode. ZARD were known to very rarely appear on TV; that was said to be the last time Sakai Izumi sang on TV live.

Some of her rare appeareances on TV:

Sakai Izumi footage is very rare, but here's some random clips of her compiled by fans:

...and decades have passed....

^ that video was from 2011 during ZARD 20th anniversary concert. Sakai Izumi only appeared in the video not because she was too shy to sing live.

Flashback to 2000, by logic, someone as big as ZARD should be guaranteed a spot in Kohaku Uta Gassen each year for at least a decade, but as we know, she didn't like to appear on TV. But in 2000, she finally accepted the invitation to perfom in "Kohaku Uta Gassen 2000" but cancelled it in the end because of her illness. Starting from that year, she started to have to deal with all kind of health issues. 

In 2006, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. It was removed, but in 2007, they discovered that the cancer had spread to her lungs so she needed to be hospitalized again. During her hospitalization, she was optimistic that it could be cured, and she even already worked on her next album from the hospital. And she loved to take a walk around the hospital every morning. On the fateful day, she was on her morning walk when she accidentally fell 3 meters from the stairs and found lying unconscious on the parking lot by passerby. The next day, May 27, 2007, 3:10 PM, Sakai Izumi died by cerebral contusion at age 40.

December 31, 2007, ZARD tribute concert was held and part of it was broadcasted live in Kohaku Uta Gassen 2007. Finally, Sakai Izumi "appeared" on the grand stage where she belonged to and received the tribute she deserved.

May she rest in peace. Sakai Izumi will always live in her fans' hearts. Her works and legacy won't be forgotten. Her song "Makenaide" is still cheering up people somewhere out there.