Yoko Shimada (Japanese: 島田 陽子, Hepburn: Shimada Yōko, 17 May 1953 – 25 July 2022) was a Japanese actress, best known to Western audiences for her portrayal of Mariko in the 1980 miniseries Shōgun.^[1]

Shimada was the only female member of Shōgun's massive cast of Japanese actors shown speaking English, for which she relied on a dialogue coach, as she was not fluent in the language at the time. Her English improved greatly during the production, however, allowing her to work in a few English language films during the 1980s and 1990s. In 1981, she won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Television Series Drama,^[2][1] and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie for her work on Shōgun.^[3] While the nine-hour long Shōgun was a critical success in the U.S., it flopped in Japan when it was released as a severely truncated theatrical version.^[1]

In 1988, Shimada had an affair with singer Yuya Uchida, who was married at the time. She reportedly had resorted to alcoholism and appeared in a nude photo book in 1992^[4] in an attempt to clear her personal debts. Though the book was a bestseller, it damaged her reputation as an actress. In 2011, at the age of 58, she starred in an adult video.^[1]

Shimada died at a hospital in Tokyo on 25 July 2022, due to complications from colorectal cancer.^[5][6]

• Osanazuma (1970)
• Kamen Rider (1971) – Hiromi Nohara
• Karei-naru Ichizoku (1974–75) – Tsugiko Manpyo^[7]
• Shiroi Kyotō (1978)
• Ōgon no Hibi (1978) – Tama
• Shōgun (1980) – Lady Toda Buntaro – Mariko
• Chicago Story (1982) – Wing
• Sanga Moyu (1984)
• Oka no Ue no Himawari (1993)

• Yōko Shimada at IMDb