Often simply referred to by her given name "Momoe", Yamaguchi is one of the most successful singers in Japanese music, releasing 32 singles, including three number one hits, and 21 studio albums.
At age 21, Yamaguchi retired at the height of her popularity to marry her frequent costar, Tomokazu Miura; she has never performed or made a public appearance since.
Toshie Yamaguchi studied in the US from partway through high school to college while Momoe made a life in Japan.
At the end of 1972, at the age of 13, Yamaguchi, along with many of her schoolmates, applied by postcard to appear on the idol talent search television show Star Tanjō!.
[n 3] Her early songs were written for her by the Hori Productions songwriting team of composer Shunichi Tokura and lyricist Kazuya Senge.
But what really launched Momoe to stardom and signaled the second stage of her career were the songs written for her by husband-wife team of lyricist Yoko Agi and composer Ryudo Usaki.
These so-called "punk" (tsuppari) songs, including "Yokosuka Story" and "Playback Part 2," proclaimed that Momoe was no longer a girl who could be used by men, but a woman ready to stand on her own two feet and take charge of her own life.
[4] Their first collaboration resulted in the single "Yokosuka Story" in 1976, written by Uzaki with lyrics by his wife, Yoko Aki.
Her second film, Izu no Odoriko, paired her with actor Tomokazu Miura, chosen because he had previously done a commercial for Glico with her.
He held bogus "press conferences" unauthorized by either Yamaguchi or her management company, and in various ways disrupted her career.
Her 12th and 18th albums, Golden Flight and L.A. Blue, were recorded in London and Los Angeles respectively, using local musicians and production staff.
In China she is known as 山口百惠 (the final character is slightly different from that used in Japan), pronounced "Shan Kou Bai Hui".
Her husband, Tomokazu Miura, continued to work as an actor, even though his career up to then had mostly consisted of playing romantic leads in her films and television series.
[12] In the early years after her retirement at the age of twenty, few details of her daily existence as wife of actor Tomokazu Miura were too mundane for the mags' Momoe watchers to miss.
[5] In 1981, she wrote a book of autobiographical essays called Aoi Toki, which sold over a million copies in its first month of publication.
Her family suffered considerable difficulty in attending school events due to television crews and photographers, who sometimes used deception to gain access.
Yūtarō entered the music business under the pseudonym "Yū" in a now-defunct group called "Peaky Salt".
In 2011, Tomokazu Miura wrote a book entitled Aishō (compatibility) explaining the secret of their happy marriage.
In the 1980s, Chinese-language versions of some of her songs, such as "Manjushaka" (曼珠沙華) as 蔓珠莎華, "Rock'n'Roll Widow" as "冰山大火", "This Is My Trial" as "孤身走我路" were released by Hong Kong singer Anita Mui.
The group re-recorded the songs in the album The Nolans Sing Momoe 2005 to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Yamaguchi's retirement.
Rina Rahman covered her song "Akai Unmei" in Malay language, entitled "Ku Ingin Bahagia".
JR West Shinkansen services use two chime version of Iihi Tabidachi as part of their next station alerts.
Starting with Kao de waratte and going on to the so-called Akai Series, in each serial drama she and Utsui played a different father and daughter.
For the first time Ken Utsui appeared in it not as the father of Yamaguchi's character, but instead in a small part as a carjacking victim and pilot.