Dear all who gave your support to Keiko Fuji for many years

Dear all who gave your support to Keiko Fuji for many years

Please accept my sincere gratitude to you on my late mother's behalf.  Thank you for all your support and help for a long time.

I would like to tell the following to all who still kindly care about my mother.

My mother's real name was wrongly reported in the latest articles. It is not Junko Abe, but Junko Utada. My mother wished to keep Utada's surname, not her maiden name Abe even after she divorced my father, so she kept herself in my father's family registry.  They were deeply bonded no matter if they were married or not.  My mother had been keeping in touch, not only with me, her daughter but also my father until just before her death. My father is one of the few that my mother would turn to till the last.

I suppose the people of Shinjuku police station decided that my father should identify and receive my mother's body, by taking such facts into account. My father played this role with intolerable pain, on behalf of me who was in no state to go to Shinjuku police station that day.

Some people wished to see my mother's body, but I was obliged to decline such requests respectfully. I would like to take this oportunity to apologize to you for the inconvenience.  It was my decision as the chief mourner, by considering my mother's feelings.

I guess there might be some people worrying about my mother, or having a doubt in mind by hearing the report that no funeral service is going to be conducted but cremation only, in the whirlpool of various information(which most likely contains inaccurate ones too). It is reported that there were no notes left, but there exists a will written early this year.  The will is very my mother, written in a very frank manner, leaving no room for different interpretations. Based on the content of the will, we are trying to send her off in a style that follows my mother's wishes as close as possible.

My mother had this policy of not attending the funerals of relatives and acquaintances, but praying for them instead in her own fashion, in her private time. I hope that, if you know my mother well, or think of what's best for her, then you would understand she was not the type of person who would show a preference for those events like funeral ceremonies or memorial services.

I myself have also been a fan of Keiko Fuji.  I am still a fan of her, and I will always be.

September 5th, (Heisei) 25

Utada Hikaru