Maeda announced malignant sarcoma diagnosis in October 2025, retirement from voice acting last month
©Yukie Maeda
The younger sister of voice actress Yukie Maeda announced on Maeda’s X (formerly Twitter) account on Saturday that Maeda died on March 9. She was 52.
Maeda had announced on February 26 that she was retiring from voice acting after 30 years at the end of February, due to her health.
Maeda announced last October that she had been suffering from malignant sarcoma — a rare, aggressive type of cancer that originates in connective tissues such as fat, muscle, nerve or blood vessels — and had moved to the Kansai region. She stated that despite her last surgery in spring 2025, she had a recurrence for the umpteenth time, and was undergoing life-prolonging measures. Before her announcement of her illness in October, Maeda had been posting on her X/Twitter account about her hospital visits, medications, and treatments since August 2020.
Maeda voiced Sōsō (Cao Cao) / Mōtoku / Karin in the Shin Koihime Musō series, Carlos in Transformers: Armada, and Ino in Kamichu!. She also voiced a character named Megumi in an educational animation video about bullying by Japan’s Ministry of Justice Human Rights Defense Bureau, titled Present. Maeda also voiced Trudy in the Japanese dub of the 2007 Bee Movie.
Under the name Kana Nojima, she voiced characters in OVA episodes such as Persepone in Angelium, Kisumi Takane in Dirty Thoughts, Mafuyu Orifushi in Kanojo x Kanojo x Kanojo – San Shimai to no DokiDoki Kyōdō Seikatsu, and Emito in Mahō Shōjo Sae.
In video games, Maeda voiced Ferri in the Puyo Puyo game series, Tsubutaki in Phantom Dust, Tama-Chan in Love Hina Advance, Aphelion in the Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time and Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction games, and Cassiopeia in Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time, among others.
Source: Yukie Maeda‘s X/Twitter account
