Keiko Yokozawa

, better known by the stage name , is a Japanese voice actress, actress, and narrator. She is also the founder and executive vice president of the Japanese talent agency YU-RIN PRO.CO.ltd. She also runs The Keiko Yokozawa Voice Acting and Narration School. Her former stage name was .

She is most well known for her voice acting roles as Dorami in Doraemon, the titular character in Mami the Psychic, Sheeta in Castle in the Sky, O-Jirō in Little Ghost Q-Tarō, Benio Hanamura in Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern, Takeo Kumagami in Mobile Police Patlabor, Roll Caskett in Mega Man Legends, and Fortissimo Piccolo in Okaasan to Issho.

Biography Yokozawa was born on September 2, 1952, in Chūō-ku, Niigata, Niigata Prefecture as the daughter of Kyūhachi Yokozawa, a junior high school English teacher.

Although she didn't want to be a voice actress originally, both of her parents, having struggled with Niigata dialect themselves, wanted her to speak standard Japanese, so they enrolled her into a children's theatre company. It ended up disbanding only three years after she joined, but she was able to become a regular in radio dramas thanks to the close acquaintances she made during the time.

In her kindergarten years, Yokozawa would take ballet, piano, and art lessons, but didn't like piano or ballet very much, and only enjoyed making art. From that point on, she had apparently disliked music.

When she was in middle school and high school, she thought about becoming an actress. Whenever she would step on-stage in school plays, she would feel a sense of exhilaration, but that was about it. If she had been more confident about her overall appearance, she would have wanted to become an actress, but because she wasn't, she thought, "That path isn't really for me..." However her parents told her, "Since you’ve gone to all that trouble to study that, you should become an announcer or something like that." Because she had to travel back and forth to Osaka Prefecture for a year to record, she dropped out of the Broadcasting Department. At first, Yokozawa did roles in TV dramas where she showed her face.

What prompted Yokozawa to switch to voice acting work was recording a television commercial for Agnes Lum. At the time, there was no one who matched the actresses' voice image, so Yokozawa was called in at the last minute to provide her dubbing voice. Afterwards the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society, which she was affiliated with at the time, thought she did voice acting too.

At one point, she was split between acting in TV dramas and doing voice acting. However, as the time required for television dramas increased, it became difficult balancing the two, so Yokozawa decided to solely focus on voice acting, which was what she had really wanted to do. When she first started her voice acting career, she mainly did dubbing for foreign films that aired on NHK.

In 1975, Yokozawa made her voice acting début in Time Bokan. Her first regular role was Kyoko in Dokaben and her first heroine role was Nina in Paul's Miraculous Adventure.

In 1980, Yokozawa got the role of Dorami in Doraemon and it became one of her most well known roles. She voiced Dorami from the character's debut on the show in April 1980 until it ended in March 2005 to make way for a reboot series.

In 1982, she started voicing the role of Fortissimo Piccolo in Niko Niko Pun, which aired on Okaasan to Issho.

She also played leading heroine roles in many other productions throughout the 1980s.

Wanting to do narration in addition to a voice actor, Yokozawa worked at the Tokyo Actor's Consumer's Cooperative Society before she officially founded the talent agency YU-RIN PRO in 1988. She currently writes and directs theater performances by the actors and training school students who affiliate with YU-RIN PRO.

In February 2026, Yokozawa was announced to have won the Merit Award at the 20th Seiyu Awards. She received the award the following month.

Personality Her voice range is soprano. She has a slightly sweet sounding speaking voice.

Yokozawa is known for commonly voicing cheerful, happy, and bubbly character roles.

If she has to voice a character in an adaptation of a pre-existing property, she always makes sure to read and study the original source material before the auditioning process. If it's an original work, she approaches by looking at the character sketches normally provided on-site and using a voice that "naturally comes to mind".

When she first started her career as a voice actress, her goals were to land a leading character role in a Fujiko anime and to make appearances in children's programs. By the time she was in her thirties, both of dreams were accomplished, as she voiced the titular character Mami Sakura in Esper Mami and appeared in the children's program Niko Niko Pun as Fortissimo Piccolo, so when she established her agency YU-RIN PRO's own school, she had felt as if her acting career came to a natural conclusion.

Hayao Miyazaki criticized her performance as Sheeta in Castle in the Sky. In stark contrast, when she voiced Mami Sakura in Esper Mami, original author Fujiko F. Fujio gave her performance high praise, describing her acting as "healthy and good".

During her middle school years, she was a member of the soft tennis club and in college, she was a member of the figure skating club, though could only skate by lifting up her feet slightly.

She has a younger sister.

Theatrical animation + List of voice performances in theatrical animation Year Title Role Notes Source Adventures of the Polar Cubs Yūrii 1980 Doraemon: Nobita's Dinosaur Piisuke 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother Fana 1982 Gauche the Cellist Child Mouse, Girl with Viola Ninja Hattori-kun: Abracadabra Magic Picture Diary Princess Short film The Ideon: A Contact Lin Formosa The Ideon: Be Invoked Lin Formosa 1984 Doraemon: Nobita's Great Adventure into the Underworld Dorami Ninja Hattori-kun + Perman: Psychic Wars Princess Short film The Pumpkin Wine: Nita's Love Story Natsumi Asaoka/L Ninja Hattori-kun + Perman: Ninja Monster Jippō vs. Miracle Egg Princess Short film 1986 Little Ghost Q-Tarō: Jump Out! Operation Bakebake O-Jirō Short film Castle in the Sky Sheeta Little Ghost Q-Tarō: Jump Out! Operation 1/100 O-Jirō Short film 1988 Doraemon: The Record of Nobita's Parallel Visit to the West Dorami Mami the Psychic: Dancing Doll of the Starry Sky Mami Sakura Short film The Three Musketeers: The Adventures of Aramis Katherina Dorami-chan: Mini Dora SOS!!! Dorami Short film It's the Ocean! It's Time to Sail! Niko Niko Pun Fortissimo Piccolo 1991 Dorami-chan: Wow, The Kid Gang of Bandits! Dorami Short film Fly! Peek the Whale Myra Dorami-chan: Hello, Dynosis Kids!! Dorami Short film Dorami-chan: A Blue Straw Hat Dorami Short film 2112: The Birth of Doraemon Dorami Short film Dorami & Doraemons: Robot School's Seven Mysteries!? Dorami Short film Doraemon: Nobita and the Spiral City Wookey Doraemon Comes Back Dorami Short film Dorami & Doraemons: Space Land's Critical Event! Dorami Short film Haikara-San: Here Comes Miss Modern Part 2 Narration

Original video animation (OVA) + List of voice performances in original video animation Year Title Role Notes Source 1985 Karuizawa Syndrome Kuno En 1985 Justy Jelna Flarestar 1988 New Story of Aura Battler Dunbine Silky Mau 1989 Legend of Lemnear Lian 1990–1992 Patlabor: The New Files Takeo Kumagami 1994 Plastic Little: The Adventures of Captain Tita Mei Lin Jones

Short film animation + List of voice performances in short film animation Year Title Role Notes Source 2015 Kiteretsu Daihyakka & Doraemon: Korosuke's First Errand O-Jirō 2024 Doraemon & F-Character All-Stars: The City of Dreams, F Land Mami Sakura, O-Jirō

Video games + List of voice performances in video games Year Series Role Notes Source 1992 Doraemon: Nobita's Dorabian Nights Dorami PC Engine Super CD-ROM² 1993 Patlabor The Mobile Police: Chaptor of Griffon Takeo Kumagami PC Engine Super CD-ROM² 1995 The Doraemons Dorami 3DO 1995 Doraemon 4: Nobita to Tsuki no Oukoku Dorami Super Famicom 1997–2008 Mega Man Legends series Roll Caskett 2000 Doraemon 3: Nobita no Machi SOS! Dorami Nintendo 64 2000 Patlabor The Mobile Police: Game Edition Takeo Kumagami Playstation 2001 Doraemon: Secret Yojigen Pocket Dorami Playstation 2005 Namco × Capcom Roll Caskett Playstation 2 2018–2025 Super Robot Wars series Silky Mau

Dubbing roles Live-action + List of dub performances in live-action productions Title Role Notes Source The Sound of Music Liesl von Trapp (Charmian Carr) The Passage Leah Bergson (Kay Lenz)

Animation + List of dub performances in animation productions Title Role Notes Source Fun and Fancy Free Singing Harp Star Wars: Ewoks Latara VHS edition The Brave Little Toaster Toaster 1993 NHK edition PB&J Otter Connie Crane

Television programs + List of voice performances in television programs Title Role Notes Source Niko Niko Pun Fortissimo Piccolo In Okaasan to Issho

Commercials + List of voice performances in commercials Year Title Role Notes Source 1975 Emeron Minky Rinse Agnes Lum second voice 1986 Pocket Saurus Giveaway Voiceover promotional giveaway for toothpaste and toothbrush products

Miscellaneous Doraemon (1979-2005): Theme song performance (ED) The Pumpkin Wine (1982-1984): Theme song performance (ED2) Gatapishi (1990-1991): Theme song performance (ED)

Related people Masanori Takai - Former TV Asahi announcer and current freelance announcer with Sun Music Production. Motomi Kōsaka - Former announcer at Niigata Broadcasting and director of the Kita Ward Cultural Center in Niigata City. Kaori Ishizuka - Announcer at Niigata Broadcasting.

Awards Year Award Category Result 202620th Seiyu AwardsMerit Award Honored