Akiko Wada

Akiko Wada was the opposite of everything Japanese audiences expected of its female pop stars in the '60 and '70s -- she was tall, loud, wore her hair short, had a huge stage presence, and did not hesitate to speak her mind in public. She took her fair share of flak for this, but it did not stop her from becoming a household name -- she is an actress, a comedian, a TV personality, and was dubbed "the Japanese Aretha Franklin" in the days before R&B went into fashion big time in the 2000s. Wada was born in a family of zainichi, ethnic Koreans living in Japan, in 1950, her birt...