On April 21, the body of former pop singer Yukiko Shimizu was found in a cemetery in Oyamacho, Shizuoka Prefecture, in front of her father's grave. Police assume that she committed suicide on the spot by inhaling hydrogen sulfide fumes and had probably also tried to kill her 80-year-old mother, who was found beside her unconscious and seated in a wheelchair. There was a note nearby warning about the presence of the deadly gas.
Everyone who knew the 49-year-old said it was just like her to leave such a considerate note, but they were baffled by the suicide itself. The showbiz press interviewed other celebrities who worked with Shimizu back in the 1980s, when she was a bubbly, adorable talent. She was always so cheerful and positive. How could she kill herself?
The Tokyo Shimbun reported that Shimizu's mother, who suffers from dementia and diabetes, is almost blind and cannot walk. Shimizu's father died when she was a little girl and her mother raised her and her sister alone. Shimizu quit show business in 2006 in order to take care of her mother full time. For a while, she worked as a telephone operator and availed herself of visiting caregiving services provided by the city of Musashino, where she lived. But she was determined, according to a local welfare official, "to take responsibility for properly caring for her mother herself." The professional caregiver who helped Shimizu told the paper, "Everyone who looks after a sick older person day after day becomes worn out. They need to talk to others when things get hard."