Atsuro Okamoto (December 25, 1924 – December 28, 2012) was a singer from Otaru City. He graduated from the Vocal Music Department of Musashino Academia Musicae (now Musashino Academia Musicae). He is signed to Nippon Columbia. He made his debut in 1946 with the radio song "Morning Comes From Here." This song was entered in a contest organized by the Asahi Shimbun newspaper to encourage Japan in the immediate aftermath of the war. Its cheerful melody made it a widely loved and popular song. With his beautiful voice with outstanding range and orthodox singing style, he was active in the music world after the war. Starting with a small hit with "Machi no Enka-shi" in 1949, he had more and more hits with popular songs. Incidentally, the song was composed by Yashima Hideaki, and is a rare enka song for Okamoto Atsuro. After the big hit "When the White Flowers Bloom," and other hits such as "Chapel no Kane" and "Akogare no Yubinbasha," his 1954 release "Kogen Ressha wa Iku" became a huge hit and remains Atsuro Okamoto's signature song to this day. He continued to have other hits, including "Pyrenee no Yama no Otoko," "Jitensha Ryokou," and "Wakajin Skier." He is known as Mr. Radio Kayo because he recorded many radio songs. Kazuo Funaki's big hit song "Koukou Sannensei" (High School Senior) was written with Okamoto in mind. Besides his singing career, he also worked as a music teacher. From 1980 to 1984, he served as the chairman of the Japan Singers Association. In 1995, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the end of the war and her 50th year with Columbia, she released a new song with Michiko Namiki and Mariko Ike, who were also with Columbia for 50 years, and held a joint concert at Hibiya Public Hall. Even after turning 80, he continued to appear on "Omoide no Melody" (NHK) and TV Tokyo's nostalgic tunes program. On September 18, 2007, he was hospitalized for a cerebral infarction, but fortunately it was discovered early and he recovered with medication. He returned to work the following year on January 21, 2008, on "Radio Shinyabin." He had been away from work since around 2010 due to heart problems, but appeared on "Natsukashi no Showa Melody" (TV Tokyo) on August 10, 2012. It was his first television appearance in about two and a half years, but it was his last work. In 2008, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th Japan Record Awards. On December 28, 2012, he died of a cerebral infarction at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 88 years old. His granddaughter is singer-songwriter Shiho Sakai. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Okamoto+Atsurou">Read more on Last.fm</a>. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.