Yoko Shimada (島田 陽子) was a Japanese actress, best known to Western audiences for her portrayal of Mariko in the 1980 miniseries Shōgun.

Shogun miniseries

Shimada was the only female member of Shōgun's massive cast of Japanese actors shown speaking English, for which she relied on a dialogue coach, as she was not fluent in the language at the time. Her English improved greatly during the production, however, allowing her to work in a few English language films during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1981, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama, and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her work on Shōgun. While the nine-hour long Shōgun was a critical success in the U.S., it flopped in Japan when it was released as a severely truncated theatrical version.

Personal life

In 1988, Shimada had an affair with singer Yuya Uchida, who was married at the time. She reportedly had resorted to alcoholism and appeared in a nude photo book in 1992 in an attempt to clear her personal debts. Though the book was a bestseller, it damaged her reputation as an actress. In 2011, at the age of 58, she starred in an adult video. Shimada died at a hospital in Tokyo on 25 July 2022, due to complications from colorectal cancer.

Filmography

Movies

Television