Yoko Kawahara (born 3 September 1939) is a Japanese operatic soprano who made a career first in Germany, then also appearing internationally at opera houses and festivals.
She studied voice with Toshiko Toda, and made her debut in 1958 as Fiordiligi in Mozart's Così fan tutte at the Nikikai Opera Company [ja] in Tokyo.
She appeared in 1972 at the Salzburg Festival with the Wiener Singakademie in Honegger's oratorio Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, conducted by Martin Turnovsky.
[1] Kawahara appeared at the Bayreuth Festival, first in 1972 as Voice of the Forest Bird in Siegfried, Woglinde in Der Ring des Nibelungen, and a Flower Maiden in Parsifal.
[3] On 3 October 1979 she was the soprano soloist in the first concert of Max Reger's unfinished Dies irae, part of the fragment of a Latin Requiem composed in 1914.