Sakurada was born in 1958. The music trio became popular as part of the television program
Producing the Stars (
Star Tanjō!); they were known as "The Trio of Third-Year Junior High School Students" ("Hana no Chu 3 Trio"). According to
Japan Pop!: Inside the World of Japanese Popular Culture, after this experience in a music group, she went off on her own to develop a solo music career, and became a
megastar. Throughout the 1970s she released a string of hit singles; nine top 5 singles, and in total eighteen top 10 singles of which "
Hajimete no Dekigoto" (First Affair) sold best, grossing over 527,000 copies according to
Oricon and peaking at number one. After winning the 4th edition of the
Star Tanjō! contest in 1972, with highest ever points and jury votes, she released her first single in February 1973 called
"Tenshi Mo Yume Miru" (The Dreams of an Angel) which was written by
Yu Aku, and sold over 120,000 copies while peaking at number 12. In the winter of 1973 following 1974 the single
"Hana Monogatari" (Flower Fairy Tales) was her first top ten hit single, which sold over 237,000 copies. She would perform for a total of 9 times at the festival. In that same year she also performed in
Finland. Following the success of her single
"Hajimete No Dekigoto", the song
"Hitori Aruki" (Walking Alone) (which was the theme song for her first ever movie production
"Spoon Ippai No Shiawase" (Spoonful of Happiness) was released in March 1975 and peaked at number 4, grossing over 350,000 copies. In the fall of the same year she was awarded at the 6th edition of the
Japan Music Awards for her single
"Tenshi No Kuchibiru" (Lips of an Angel), which sold over 281,000 copies and peaked at number 4 on the charts. She would score her last top 10 hit single in the summer of 1978 with the disco inspired single
"Lipstick", and would release her last single and album in 1983. Several of her singles have also been featured on the Japanese music show
"The Best Ten", which aired from 1978 up to 1989. These include
"Shiawase Shibai" (peaking at no. 3),
"Oi Kakete Yokohama" (peaking at no. 10),
"Lipstick" (peaking at no. 8),
"Hatachi Ni Nareba" (peaking at no. 11),
"Fuyu Iro No Machi" (peaking at no. 20), and
"Santa Monica No Kaze" (peaking at no. 17). Sakurada's acting career began in 1973 and lasted through 1993, with roles in 13 films and many television dramas. She received multiple awards for her acting roles, including the
Hochi Film Award,
Award of the Japanese Academy,
Kinema Junpo Award, and
Mainichi Film Concours. In 1991, her memoir,
Gift God Gave Me, was published and the media reported that she had become a "movie heartthrob". In November 2006, she released a book titled
Aisuru Junban. In October 2013, Junko Sakurada re-appeared in the public eye after an absence of twenty years since getting married. She held a one-night only concert at the Hakuhinkan Theater in Tokyo, to commemorate her 40th year in showbusiness. She also released a best of album,
Thanks 40, for the occasion. She performed songs from the musical
Annie Get Your Gun, as well as her 1981 single
Keshō. Tickets to the show sold out in a few minutes. == Private life ==