Ryoko Shinohara (篠原 涼子, Shinohara Ryōko, born August 13, 1973) is a Japanese singer and actress.
As a singer, she is best known for the 1994 song "Itoshisa to Setsunasa to Kokoro Zuyosa to" with producer Tetsuya Komuro, which charted at number one and made her the first female artist in Japan to record a double million in CD single sales. It was followed by the number one album Lady Generation: Shukujo no Jidai (1995). Shinohara's musical output saw waning commercial reception in the latter half of the decade, at which she began concentrating on her acting career.
Highlighted by the Japan Times for her "long reign as a TV drama queen", Shinohara's best known acting credits include detective Yukihira Natsumi in the drama series Unfair, which spawned three feature films and several specials; and temp worker Haruko Oomae in Haken no Hinkaku.[1][2] She has starred in several acclaimed films, winning two Japan Academy Film Prizes for her roles in The House Where the Mermaid Sleeps and Sakura Guardian in the North, both in 2018.
