Mitsuko Catherine Yorichika

Japanese female announcer, pianist, concert planner, TV host and actress. Born in Hiroshima. (August 1, 1955 - May 17, 2009) She was a pioneer of Joshi-Ana (an young Japanese female announcer with popularity like idols). Her grandparents were first generation persons of Japanese descent who emigrated from Hiroshima to America. Her father was second generation persons of Japanese descent born in the United States. Her father moved to Hiroshima City after World War II and worked for ABCC (the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission, Now it's called Radiation Effects Research Foundation) Mitsuko Yorichika's middle name is Catherine, but Japanese style does not use middle name. In 1981 she moved from NHK, a state television station to Fuji Television Network. In 1984, Haruo Shikanai who was vice president of Fuji TV at the time and she married. Haruo Shikanai is a member of Fuji TV founder. Then her name became 鹿内キャサリン美津子 (Shikanai Catherine Mitsuko) However, in 1988 Haruo was killed at the age of 42 because of acute liver injury. She became a widow. She inherited huge assets but Haruo's father bought a lot of Fuji TV shares from her to privatize the Fuji TV group. Later, she worked as 頼近 美津子 / Mitsuko Yorichika. In 2007 she was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. She died at the age of 53 at a hospital in Kashiwa City, Chiba prefecture on May 17th, 2009 at 1:46 pm. Direct cause of death was heart failure.