Yasuko Naka, having been familiar with Irish traditional songs since her childhood, started her professional career as a ‘Japanese bard’ of Irish folks, after leaving the renowned Takarazuka Revue Company in Japan. Since 1998, she has been learning traditional singing method across Ireland and Japan. Through her almost 30 years career, she has made numerous appearances at school performances, on the radio, in hospitals, at volunteer concerts in disaster-stricken areas in Japan, some of which were planned and operated by herself, and at the several receptions hosted by the Irish Embassy of Japan. She has been chosen as a special solo singer of both national anthems of Ireland and Japan at the sacred ceremony of the Ise Grand Shrine, “Soul of Japan’, as well as at the St Patrick’s Day parade in Tokyo since 2015.

Her first songbook “Tales of the Emerald Isle” (Aiiku Publisher, Japan) was published in 2021.

In July 2022, she had an honor of singing the national anthems of both countries in front of Taoiseach Micheál Martin at his official visit to Japan.

This is her second concert tour in Ireland after she performed in Dublin, Tramore and Galway in 2024.

www.yasukonaka.com