Akiko Yoshida (吉田亜紀子), better known by her stage name KOKIA, born on July 22, 1976, is a singer-songwriter from Tokyo, Japan, singing with a wide radius of musical influences.
She was a musical child, and learnt the violin. While studying music in the USA she started to learn the piano. When she returned to Japan she was accepted into the Toho Gakuen, the most prestigious musical school in Japan. She majored in opera, as this style showed off her voice to its full potential.
Her first single in 1998, “Aishiteru Kara”, reached the top twenty in Japan. This caught the eye of well-known producer/singer 菅野よう子, and she offered to include Kokia on the soundtrack to the anime series Brain Powerd. “Ai no Rinkaku”, a duet between Kokia and Yoko Kanno, was produced. In 2004, Kokia’s song “Yume ga Chikara” was used to support the Japanese team at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games.
‘Kokia’ is an anagram of “Akiko”, and also the name of a Hawaiian Hibiscus, which is a flower that blooms on her birthday
