Izumi Sakai of Zard dies at 40: HCJ mourns

Izumi Sakai, the singer of the JPOP group Zard died of a brain contusion at the age of 40. Zard was popular in the 1990s and this decade and was originally planning a new release later this year. During the time Hardcore J has been on the air, we had released 9 tracks from Zard as well as brought back some of Zard's older tracks through our hourly "memory box" segment.

For the rest of today, Hardcore J will memorialize Zard by playing a Zard song at the bottom of the hour.

In a brief on-air statement, REC's Michelle Eyre simply said "Thank you for the beautiful music and may you rest in peace."