Ex-idol Seiko Matsuda’s actress daughter Sayada Kanda dies aged 35 allegedly after falling from height

TOKYO - Japanese singer and actress Sayaka Kanda, the only child of actress Seiko Matsuda and actor Masaki Kanda, has died at the age of 35.

The artiste was found in the outdoor space of the 14th floor of a hotel in Sapporo on Saturday (Dec 18) afternoon, according to Japanese broadcaster NHK.

She was rushed to hospital but was pronounced dead at about 8.40pm.

Kanda had been scheduled to star in the musical, My Fair Lady, in Sapporo on Saturday but did not turn up and could not be reached on her phone.

It is believed that she might have fallen from the 20th floor of the hotel, where she was staying, and the police are looking into the possibility of suicide, Japanese media reported.

Kanda started out as a singer before acting in movies. In recent years, she had been more active on stage in musical productions.

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According to Japanese media, she was best known for being the voice of Anna in the Japanese edition of Disney animation movie, Frozen. Her rendition, in Japanese, of a song from the movie, For The First Time In Forever, won her much praise.

Kanda married actor Mitsu Murata in 2017 but they divorced in 2019.

Her mother, Matsuda, 59, was one of Japan's most popular idols in the 1980s and was in the news last month for making her directorial debut in an episode of HBO horror anthology Folklore's second season.

Matsuda divorced actor Kanda in 1997. She married a dentist in 1998 but they divorced in 2000 and she married her current husband, an academic, in 2012.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.