She visited galleries, attended theater productions, made dry flowers, and painted in oil in her spare time.

Because she was hardly ever seen in public, there were unsubstantiated conspiracy theories in Japan that works by Zard were not produced by the woman pictured (Sakai): She was referred to as an urban legend.

In fact, a staff member revealed that when Sakai saw multiple people lining up for her concert tour in 2004, she was taken aback and hid herself.

[citation needed] For the next two years following her scouting, she was a Toei "karaoke queen" and a promotional model appearing in television commercials for Japan Air System.

[citation needed] The melodies of early Zard hits were written by prominent Japanese composers, most notably Seiichirō Kuribayashi and Tetsurō Oda.

[2] Her fourth single, "Nemurenai Yoru o Daite" (Hold me through the sleepless night) was extremely successful, leading to four television appearances.

Released at a time that is now seen as the beginning of Japan's post economic bubble era when the Nikkei 225 Index had shrunk in value by a third in only three years, "Makenaide" (Don't Give Up) became known as the theme song of the country's Lost Decade."

[3] The NHK program Close Up Gendai reported on June 18, 2007, that the secret to Sakai's success was that she hardly was seen in public, which created a mystic aura.

[4] According to the Kitto Wasurenai Official book, she had to take a break from her career due to various uterus-related illnesses in 2001, and did not begin working full-time again until 2003.

After her death, the Japanese weekly magazine Friday ran an interview in which said Sakai thought that modern treatments would enable her to live long.

[5] Finally, Sakai sent an e-mail to her staff saying that she was anxious to go back to producing music and was looking forward to another concert in late 2007.

Police judged her death accidental, the result of a fall from the landing of an emergency-exit slope at Keio University Hospital, where she was undergoing chemotherapy.

Her family was by her side when she died, though it was reported that she never regained consciousness throughout the final day of her life in the emergency room.

In the Friday article, her mother said that Sakai took walks in rehabilitation and the location where she fell was her favorite place to meditate.

Furthermore, the day before her accidental fall, Sakai told a producer who had been with her for 16 years that she was looking forward to have a recording machine at her home so she could start working upon discharge from hospital.

A closed memorial service was held on June 26 at a funeral hall in Aoyama, Tokyo for members of the entertainment industry.

Almost as if to illustrate Sakai's impact on the Japanese music scene and the depth of her presence, singers Tak Matsumoto and Koshi Inaba, members of the popular B'z group, pop-singer Mai Kuraki, and even baseball giant Shigeo Nagashima all left moving messages of their encounters with Sakai.

During the intermezzo, video images of the dressing room were shown, showing how staff had set it up in the same way Sakai used it during her What a Beautiful Moment concert tour.

The door was labeled "Ms. Sakai Izumi" and the room had a clipboard displaying the day's schedule; lunch boxes were also prepared and laid out on a coffee table.

When "Makenaide" ended, Sakai's recorded voice was played back to the sold-out crowd: "Thank you for coming today.

[17] In the encore of the memorial concerts, the music staff displayed some 300 songs in notebooks hand-written by Sakai that were found after she died.