Keiko Yokozawa

Summarize Timeline Fact Check

Yokozawa was born on September 2, 1952, in Chūō-ku, Niigata, Niigata Prefecture as the daughter of Kyūhachi Yokozawa, a junior high school English teacher.

Although she didn't want to be a voice actress originally, both of her parents, having struggled with Niigata dialect themselves, wanted her to speak standard Japanese, so they enrolled her into a children's theatre company. It ended up disbanding only three years after she joined, but she was able to become a regular in radio dramas thanks to the close acquaintances she made during the time.^[5][6]

In her kindergarten years, Yokozawa would take ballet, piano, and art lessons, but didn't like piano or ballet very much, and only enjoyed making art. From that point on, she had apparently disliked music.^[7]

When she was in middle school and high school, she thought about becoming an actress. Whenever she would step on-stage in school plays, she would feel a sense of exhilaration, but that was about it. If she had been more confident about her overall appearance, she would have wanted to become an actress, but because she wasn't, she thought, "That path isn't really for me..." However her parents told her, "Since you've gone to all that trouble to study that, you should become an announcer or something like that."^[7]

She graduated from Niigata High School. During Yokozawa's time at junior high school, things like The Time Tunnel were popular and made her want to become a scientist. At the time, she would keep saying "I'm going to do that", but her mother ended up telling her teacher, who then called her in and suggested that she become a news announcer instead.^[7]

Now aspiring to become a voice actor, she thought that she could use what she learned to play a wide range of roles, so she decided to pursue a career in voice acting and enrolled in the Broadcasting Department at the Nihon University College of Art.^[8]

Per the recommendation of Hisashi Katsuta, she entered Haikyo's "affiliated training school" (now known as the Haikyo Drama Research Institute), and while she enrolled, she made her drama début in Hanaguruma, which aired on NHK General TV, in 1974.^[9] Because she had to travel back and forth to Osaka Prefecture for a year to record, she dropped out of the Broadcasting Department. At first, Yokozawa did roles in TV dramas where she showed her face.^[8]

What prompted Yokozawa to switch to voice acting work was recording a television commercial for Agnes Lum. At the time, there was no one who matched the actresses' voice image, so Yokozawa was called in at the last minute to provide her dubbing voice. Afterwards the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society, which she was affiliated with at the time, thought she did voice acting too.

At one point, she was split between acting in TV dramas and doing voice acting. However, as the time required for television dramas increased, it became difficult balancing the two, so Yokozawa decided to solely focus on voice acting, which was what she had really wanted to do. When she first started her voice acting career, she mainly did dubbing for foreign films that aired on NHK.

In 1975, Yokozawa made her voice acting début in Time Bokan. Her first regular role was Kyoko in Dokaben and her first heroine role was Nina in Paul's Miraculous Adventure.^[10]

In 1980, Yokozawa got the role of Dorami in Doraemon and it became one of her most well known roles. She voiced Dorami from the character's debut on the show in 1980 until it ended in March 2005 to make way for a reboot series.^[11]

In 1982, she started voicing the role of Fortissimo Piccolo in Niko Niko Pun, which aired on Okaasan to Issho.

She also played leading heroine roles in many other productions throughout the 1980s.

Wanting to do narration in addition to a voice actor, Yokozawa worked at the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society before she officially founded the talent agency YU-RIN PRO in 1988.^[2] After that, she decided to retire from frontline voice acting to focus on training the next generation at The Keiko Yokozawa Voice Acting and Narration School. When she decided to start up YU-RIN PRO, she also founded the school at the same time, as she wanted people she had trained to affiliate with her.

YU-RIN PRO's name came from a picture book that Yokozawa wrote for her daughter called Yukiko Yurin.^[12] She currently writes and directs theater performances by the actors and training school students who affiliate with YU-RIN PRO.

In February 2026, Yokozawa was announced to have won the Merit Award at the 20th Seiyu Awards.^[13][14] She received the award the following month.^[15][16][17]

Her voice range is soprano.^[18] She has a slightly sweet sounding speaking voice.^[19]

Yokozawa is known for commonly voicing cheerful, happy, and bubbly character roles.^[19]

Whenever she acts, she always fully immerses herself into it. And when she has to have to prepare for a role, she focuses on building the character during the audition process, as auditions are normally held in advance. She's said that when its the day to record, she normally receives the script, thinks to herself "Oh, so this is the kind of story it is", and before she knows it, recording the dialogue is already completed.^[20]

If she has to voice a character in an adaptation of a pre-existing property, she always makes sure to read and study the original source material before the auditioning process. If it's an original work, she approaches by looking at the character sketches normally provided on-site and using a voice that "naturally comes to mind".^[21]

When she first started her career as a voice actress, her goals were to land a leading character role in a Fujiko anime and to make appearances in children's programs. By the time she was in her thirties, both of dreams were accomplished, as she voiced the titular character Mami Sakura in Esper Mami and appeared in the children's program Niko Niko Pun as Fortissimo Piccolo, so when she established her agency YU-RIN PRO's own school, she had felt as if her acting career came to a natural conclusion.^[22]

Hayao Miyazaki criticized her performance as Sheeta in Castle in the Sky. In stark contrast, when she voiced Mami Sakura in Esper Mami, original author Fujiko F. Fujio gave her performance high praise, describing her acting as "healthy and good".^[23]

During her middle school years, she was a member of the soft tennis club and in college, she was a member of the figure skating club, though could only skate by lifting up her feet slightly.^[7]

Her hobby and special skill is swimming.^[24]

She has a younger sister.^[7]

Her husband works as a salaried employee at a company that designs and consults on projects like an artificial beach. He can also analyse on how to install terapods to prevent coastal erosion.^[7] While she and her husband got married in October 1978, they had first met way back at a cultural festival that was held during her first year of high school. They started to dating shortly after and decided to marry during high school.^[24]

As mentioned previously, she also has a daughter.^[7]

Television animation

More information Year, Title ...

List of voice performances in television animation

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1975	Time Bokan	Christine, Junko	Christine in Ep. 3 and Substitute voice of Junko from Ep. 34-36
	The Adventures of Pepero	Lily, Chu-chu's older sister, Girl A
1976	New Don Chuck Story	Lala	Third voice; Ep. 37-73	[25]
	Dokaben	Kyoko Asahina, Akiko
	3000 Leagues in Search of Mother	Joanna		[26]
	Blocker Gundan 4 Machine Blaster	Sachiko	Ep. 14
	Paul's Miraculous Adventure	Nina		[27][28]
	UFO Warrior Dai Apolon	Junko
1977	Attack on Tomorrow!	Sumie Nishi		[29][30]
	Ippatsu Kanta-kun	Tobashi Goko, Tobashi Rokuko		[31][32]
	Mechander Robo	Mika Shikishima		[33]
	Monarch: The Big Bear of Tallac	Jill		[34][35]
	Dinosaur War Izenborg	Miyuki, Elena
	Ginguiser	Maiko
	Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V	Rosalia	Ep. 28
	Yatterman	Maria, Marie, Princess Mari, Anne	Maria in Ep. 5
	Robokko Beeton	Additional voice
	Charlotte of the Young Grass	Charlotte		[36][37]
1978	Her Majesty's Petite Angie	Sherry
	Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern	Benio Hanamura		[38][39]
	Story of Perrine	Merca
	The Prince of the Stars: Le Petit Prince	Saten, Hannah, Glinka		[40]
1979	Story of the Knights of the Round Table: Blazing Arthur	Marine	In Ep. 7, 16, 17, 19
	Scientific Adventure Team Tansar 5	Rui Shinpi		[41][42]
	Misha the Little Bear	Misha	Lead role	[43][44]
	Bannertail: The Story of Gray Squirrel	Sue Silvergray	Main role	[45][46]
	Zenderman	Himiko, Crane	Himiko in Ep. 4, Crane in Ep. 26
	Doraemon	Dorami, Michiko Minamoto, Fuuko, Roboko, Honest Taro, Aare Okkana, Sumire Hoshino, Mami Sakura, Additional voice	Main role; First voice of Michiko Minamoto	[47]
	Lunlun the Flower Child	Elene
	Maegami Taro	Princess		[48]
	Song of Baseball Enthusiasts	Yuko
	Lupin the 3rd Part II	Ellie Sattler	Ep. 103
1980	Space Warrior Baldios	Jamie Hoshino		[49][50]
	Gatchaman Fighter	Lucy
	Kirin Tomorrow's Calendar	Assistant, Office Lady
	Galaxy Express 999	Hanako, Naya, Zoya, Mirai	Hanako in Ep. 60-61
	Sue Cat	Maria Mikemura		[51]
	Foolish Knight – Don of La Mancha	Additional voice
	Astro Boy	Livian	Credited incorrectly as "Keiko Yokoyama" (横山啓子)	[52]
	Space Runaway Ideon	Lin Formosa		[53]
	Muteking, The Dashing Warrior	Sayuri
	The Wonderful Adventures of Nils	Village Boy, Mads	Village Boy in Ep. 1, Mads in Ep. 21 and 35	[54]
	King Arthur: Prince on White Horse	Lily
1981	The Story of Cuore, School of Love	Pietro Precossi
	Ashita no Joe 2	Jun Shioya
	Urusei Yatsura	Ten's mother, Additional voice	First voice of Ten's mother
	Strongest Robo Daioja	Kukiru
	Tiger Mask II	Gina
	Ninja Hattori-kun	Princess, Yuki, Kanako
	Miss Machiko	Shinichi Ogura, Sayuri
	Belle and Sebastian	Angelina		[55]
1982	Roly-Poly Pollon – The Story of a Bratty Goddess	Medusa, Hippolyta
	The Monster Kid	Mika Hayashi
	Game Center Arashi	Sumire Matsumoto	First voice	[56]
	The Pumpkin Wine	Natsumi Asaoka/L		[57][58]
	Fisherman Sanpei	Fumiko
	Boku Patalliro!	Marion	Ep. 4
	Pro Golfer Saru	Benibachi	Television special	[59][60]
	Manga Mito Kōmon	Additional voice
	Anime Yasei no Sakebi	Additional voice
1983	Akū Daisakusen Srungle	Luise, Teleshia	Luise in Ep. 10, Teleshia in Ep. 23
	Galactic Gale Baxingar	Natasha
	Sarutobi as Expected	Shoko, Junko
	Mrs. Pepper Pot	Jin, Little Bon, Par, Lou		[61]
	Fuku-chan	Tsuyoshi Matsubara
	Miyuki	Koharu
	Future Policeman Urashiman	Sophia Nina Rose		[62][63]
1984	Oyoneko Boonyan	Uzura Yudeta		[64][65]
	Super High Speed Galvion	Rei Midoriyama		[66]
	Sherlock Hound	Ellen	Ep. 8
	Ranpō	Princess Etabira
1985	The Prince of Devil Island: The Three-Eyed One	Pandora	Television film	[67][68]
	Little Ghost Q-Tarō	O-Jirō		[69]
	Captain Tsubasa	Yumiko		[70]
	Star Musketeer Bismark	Joan Clementine, Roy	First voice of Joan Clementine
	Perman	Kasumi, Sumire's Mom
	Flaming Alpen Rose: Judy & Randy	Clara
1987	The Three Musketeers: The Animation	Charlotte	Ep. 9-10
	Mami the Psychic	Mami Sakura	Lead role	[71][72]
	Lady Lady!!	Misuzu Midorikawa		[73][74]
1988	City Hunter 2	Kumi Akamatsu	Ep. 12
1989	Let's Go! Anpanman	Princess Muscat	First voice
	Dragon Ball	Annin	Ep. 152-153
1990	Gatapishi	Gatapishi	Lead role	[75]
	Patlabor the Mobile Police on Television	Takeo Kumagami		[76]
1992	Sazae-san	Fortissimo Piccolo	Guest appearance
1994	Blue Seed	Yaobikuni
2011	Everyday Life	Nano's wind-up key, Narration	Ep. 25	[77]

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Theatrical animation

More information Year, Title ...

List of voice performances in theatrical animation

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1979	Adventures of the Polar Cubs	Yūrii		[78][79][80][81]
1980	Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur	Piisuke		[82][83][84]
	3000 Leagues in Search of Mother	Fana		[85]
1982	Gauche the Cellist	Child Mouse, Girl with Viola		[86][87]
	Ninja Hattori-kun: Abracadabra Magic Picture Diary	Princess	Short film	[88]
	The Ideon: A Contact	Lin Formosa		[89]
	The Ideon: Be Invoked	Lin Formosa		[90][91]
1984	Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld	Dorami		[92][93][94]
	Ninja Hattori-kun + Perman: Psychic Wars	Princess	Short film	[95]
	The Pumpkin Wine: Nita's Love Story	Natsumi Asaoka/L		[96]
1985	Ninja Hattori-kun + Perman: Ninja Monster Jippō vs. Miracle Egg	Princess	Short film	[97]
1986	Little Ghost Q-Tarō: Jump Out! Operation Bakebake	O-Jirō	Short film	[98]
	Castle in the Sky	Sheeta		[99][100][101]
1987	Little Ghost Q-Tarō: Jump Out! Operation 1/100	O-Jirō	Short film	[102][103]
1988	Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West	Dorami		[104][105][106]
	Mami the Psychic: Dancing Doll of the Starry Sky	Mami Sakura	Short film	[107][108]
1989	The Three Musketeers: The Adventures of Aramis	Katherina
	Dorami-chan: Mini Dora SOS!!!	Dorami	Short film	[109][110]
1990	It's the Ocean! It's Time to Sail! Niko Niko Pun	Fortissimo Piccolo		[111]
1991	Dorami-chan: Wow, The Kid Gang of Bandits!	Dorami	Short film	[112][113]
	Fly! Peek the Whale	Myra		[114]
1993	Dorami-chan: Hello, Dynosis Kids!!	Dorami	Short film	[115][116]
1994	Dorami-chan: A Blue Straw Hat	Dorami	Short film	[117][118]
1995	2112: The Birth of Doraemon	Dorami	Short film	[119][120]
1996	Dorami & Doraemons: Robot School's Seven Mysteries!?	Dorami	Short film	[121][122]
1997	Doraemon: Nobita and the Spiral City	Wookey		[123][124]
1998	Doraemon Comes Back	Dorami	Short film	[125][126]
2001	Dorami & Doraemons: Space Land's Critical Event!	Dorami	Short film	[127][128]
2018	Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 2	Narration		[129]

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Original video animation (OVA)

More information Year, Title ...

List of voice performances in original video animation

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1985	Karuizawa Syndrome	Kuno En		[130][131]
1985	Justy	Jelna Flarestar		[132]
1988	New Story of Aura Battler Dunbine	Silky Mau		[133]
1989	Legend of Lemnear	Lian		[134]
1990–1992	Patlabor: The New Files	Takeo Kumagami		[135]
1994	Plastic Little: The Adventures of Captain Tita	Mei Lin Jones		[136]

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Short film animation

More information Year, Title ...

List of voice performances in short film animation

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
2015	Kiteretsu Daihyakka & Doraemon: Korosuke's First Errand	O-Jirō
2024	Doraemon & F-Character All-Stars: The City of Dreams, F Land	Mami Sakura, O-Jirō		[137]

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Video games

More information Year, Series ...

List of voice performances in video games

Year	Series	Role	Notes	Source
1992	Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights	Dorami	PC Engine Super CD-ROM²
1993	Patlabor The Mobile Police: Chaptor of Griffon	Takeo Kumagami	PC Engine Super CD-ROM²
1995	The Doraemons	Dorami	3DO	[138]
1995	Doraemon 4: Nobita to Tsuki no Oukoku	Dorami	Super Famicom
1997–2008	Mega Man Legends series	Roll Caskett
2000	Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS!	Dorami	Nintendo 64	[139]
2000	Patlabor The Mobile Police: Game Edition	Takeo Kumagami	Playstation
2001	Doraemon: Secret Yojigen Pocket	Dorami	Playstation
2005	Namco × Capcom	Roll Caskett	Playstation 2
2018–2025	Super Robot Wars series	Silky Mau

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Dubbing roles

Live-action

More information Title, Role ...

List of dub performances in live-action productions

Title	Role	Notes	Source
The Sound of Music	Liesl von Trapp (Charmian Carr)		[140]
The Passage	Leah Bergson (Kay Lenz)		[141]

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Animation

More information Title, Role ...

List of dub performances in animation productions

Title	Role	Notes	Source
Fun and Fancy Free	Singing Harp		[142]
Star Wars: Ewoks	Latara	VHS edition
The Brave Little Toaster	Toaster	1993 NHK edition	[143]
PB&J Otter	Connie Crane

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Television programs

More information Title, Role ...

List of voice performances in television programs

Title	Role	Notes	Source
Niko Niko Pun	Fortissimo Piccolo	In Okaasan to Issho

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Commercials

More information Year, Title ...

List of voice performances in commercials

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Source
1975	Emeron Minky Rinse	Agnes Lum	second voice	[144]
1986	Pocket Saurus Giveaway	Voiceover	promotional giveaway for toothpaste and toothbrush products

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Miscellaneous

• Doraemon (1979-2005): Theme song performance (ED)
• The Pumpkin Wine (1982-1984): Theme song performance (ED2)
• Gatapishi (1990-1991): Theme song performance (ED)

• Masanori Takai – Former TV Asahi announcer and current freelance announcer with Sun Music Production.
• Motomi Kōsaka – Former announcer at Niigata Broadcasting and director of the Kita Ward Cultural Center in Niigata City.
• Kaori Ishizuka – Announcer at Niigata Broadcasting.