Noriko Sakai Comeback to University

November 22, 2009 · Posted in Noriko Sakai

Noriko Sakai, she get a suspended notice sentence last week during on charges of drug use and possession, visited Souzou Gakuen University (The University of Creation; Art, Music & Social Work) in Maebashi, Gunma Prefecture, on Wednesday. Sakai, 38, has enrolled to take classes.

She looked in good health, smiling occasionally. By her side was Sun Music Production Inc President Masahisa Aizawa who is currently giving her advice on how to progress in her dream of working as a caregiver.

A university spokesperson said that Sakai had come to attend orientation that day, and received a tour of the Nakayama and Yachiyo campuses. There are rumors that she would receive credits through distance learning courses, but the university stated that nothing had been decided yet.

Noriko Sakai (酒井法子, Sakai Noriko; born February 14, 1971) is a J-pop singer and actress. She was born in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. She married in 1998, and has one son born in 1999. She is particularly popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Her best-selling single to date is Aoi Usagi (碧いうさぎ?, “blue rabbit”).

Sakai released her debut single, “Otoko no Ko ni Naritai” (男のコになりたい, I Want to Be a Boy) on February 5, 1987, nine days short of her sixteenth birthday. Over 40,000 copies of the single were sold. In the early years of her career, she used the nickname NORI-P (のりピー), although around the mid-1990s she started to distance herself from it.[1][2][3]

She recently re-emerged in the headlines again for a drug scandal in August 2009.