Lily

Lily — born Saeko Kamata in Fukuoka in February 1952, died in November 2016 at sixty-four — had the kind of career that Japanese pop culture doesn't hand out often. She started as a singer-songwriter, writing her own words and music, and later built a substantial second life as an actress. That order matters to me. Plenty of performers move from screen to studio because a record deal is an easy extension of fame. Going the other way is harder and, I think, more revealing: it means someone was hired for what she could actually do in a scene, not for the name on a poster. Singers who cross over tend to carry an unusual sense of timing into acting — they know how long a silence can hold — and that instinct is not something you can coach. Sixty-four was too early. What remains is the recordings and the film and television work, and that body of evidence speaks for itself better than any summary I could write.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Name (English)

Lily

Name (Japanese)

りりィ

Reading

りりぃ

Born

February 17, 1952 – November 11, 2016

Origin

Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

actor / singer-songwriter / composer / singer / Liedermacher

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aquarius / Dragon

Works summary

Appearances

194 (1972–2017)

By year (titles with a known year)

1972: 7, 1973: 2, 1974: 5, 1975: 8, 1976: 6, 1977: 5, 1978: 10, 1979: 6, 1980: 4, 1981: 7, 1982: 4, 1983: 8, 1985: 1, 1986: 2, 1987: 2, 1988: 2, 1989: 2, 1995: 2, 1996: 1, 1997: 2, 1998: 2, 1999: 5, 2000: 4, 2001: 5, 2002: 3, 2003: 1, 2004: 2, 2005: 4, 2006: 1, 2007: 7, 2008: 4, 2009: 5, 2010: 6, 2011: 4, 2012: 12, 2013: 3, 2014: 8, 2015: 9, 2016: 8, 2017: 2, year unknown: 13

Debut work

夏の妹

Filmography / notable works

• Official sitehttp://www.geocities.jp/lily_yoji/
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lily%20(Japanese%20singer)
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%8A%E3%82%8A%E3%82%A3
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3240936

Tags

• Fukuoka Prefecture
• actor
• singer-songwriter
• composer

Last updated

September 29, 2026

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Works and profile fields sourced from Wikipedia reflect content as of 2026-08-26. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.