Kanda Sayaka, Japanese Actor, Dies at 35 After Hotel Fall
Japanese actor and musician Kanda Sayaka died on Saturday evening in Sapporo, Hokkaido. She was 35.
Her sudden death was confirmed by her agency and on her official website which removed all other content and replaced it with a notice.
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“I would like to report to everyone who has supported Sayaka Kanda so far. Kanda Sayaka (35 years old) died suddenly at 9:40 pm on December 18, 2021. We are very sorry to give such a report to all the fans who supported us and all the people who took care of us. We are still unable to accept her passing and are trying to cope with it. We are currently investigating the detailed situation, but we kindly ask the media to refrain from interviewing relatives or posting articles by speculation,” said Kamaichi Mitsuhisa, CEO of Robe Co. in the statement.
Kanda was found unconscious, in a pool of blood, in an outdoors part of the hotel in Sapporo, where she was staying. She appeared to have fallen six floors from her 22nd floor room. She was pronounced dead after being transported to hospital.
Hokkaido police in the city said that they had not ruled out death by suicide or foul play.
The daughter of Kanda Masaki and well-known singer-actor Matsuda Seiko, Kanda had a career that spanned film, TV, stage and music. She was married for two and a half years between 2017 and 2019, before the union ended in divorce.
Kanda appeared in the 1999 David Greenspan short film “Bean Cake,” that won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. More recently she provided Japanese voice dubbing for Anna in Disney’s “Frozen.”
Japanese media report that Kanda had been set to play the role of Eliza Dolittle in the Sapporo Cultural Arts Theater’s production of “My Fair Lady.” Earlier in the day, she reported as unwell and canceled her performance.
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