Actress Yuri Nakamura (中村ゆり) Dies at 44 After a Private Battle With Cancer — Remembering Her Best-Known Dramas

Posted Sep 24, 2026

Yuri Nakamura at the Tokyo International Film Festival, October 2022 (Photo: Dick Thomas Johnson, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

By daite

7 min read

Actress Yuri Nakamura (中村ゆり) Dies at 44 After a Private Battle With Cancer — Remembering Her Best-Known Dramas

Actress Yuri Nakamura (中村ゆり, real name 中村友理) died of rectal cancer on September 1, 2026, at age 44. Her agency, Alpha Agency, announced the death on September 14. She died surrounded by her family and close friends, and a private funeral was held with relatives and colleagues.

For twenty years she was one of those actors viewers recognized on sight: a doctor’s colleague, a detective’s partner, a wife quietly holding a household together. Her performances were gentle and precise, and she never seemed to be showing off. It is hard to accept that there will be no new ones.

A Fight She Kept to Herself

According to her agency, Nakamura was first diagnosed with cancer 13 years ago. She went into remission and kept working, telling almost no one so that the people she worked with would not worry. In January 2025 the cancer returned. Surgery went well, but later tests showed it had spread.

In July 2026 she withdrew from the NHK Drama 10 series Dangerous (デンジャラス), scheduled for January 2027, and publicly gave a bowel obstruction as the reason. In August, while she was still recovering and working toward a return, the obstruction came back and doctors told her she had very little time left. The agency said she kept “a beautiful, gentle smile” to the end.

After her death, many people recalled her 2019 Nippon Life commercial, in which she played a seriously ill mother. Knowing what she was living with at the time makes it very hard to watch now.

From Pop Duo to Actress

Nakamura was born on March 15, 1982, in Neyagawa, Osaka, into a Zainichi Korean family, and held South Korean nationality throughout her life.

Year	Milestone
1996	Passed an audition on TV Tokyo’s ASAYAN and formed the pop duo YURIMARI with her childhood friend MARI
1998	YURIMARI debuted, releasing six singles and one album before disbanding in 1999
2003	Returned after a three-year break, now as an actress
2007	Played the lead, Kyonja Ri, in Kazuyuki Izutsu’s Pacchigi! Love & Peace, winning the National Film Association (全国映連賞) Best Actress award and the Osaka Cinema Festival Newcomer Award
2013	Appeared in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Like Father, Like Son; joined Alpha Agency, where she remained for the rest of her career
2020	Took her first TV lead at 37, sharing top billing with Kodai Asaka in Konya wa Ko no Ji de
2023	Won Best Supporting Actress at the Takasaki Film Festival for Ichiko
2025	Reached a worldwide audience in Netflix’s Romantics Anonymous

Her Best-Known Dramas

Year	Title	Network	About
2010	月の恋人〜Moon Lovers〜	Fuji TV (Monday 9 p.m.)	Romance starring Takuya Kimura that brought her to a prime-time audience
2018	グッド・ドクター (Good Doctor)	Fuji TV	Japanese remake of the Korean medical drama, with Kento Yamazaki as a young surgeon with autism
2019	パーフェクトワールド (Perfect World)	Fuji TV	Love story about an architect who uses a wheelchair
2020	今夜はコの字で (Konya wa Ko no Ji de)	BS TV Tokyo	Her first lead: a late-night food and romance series set in Tokyo’s U-shaped counter bars, popular enough to get a second season in 2022
2020	未満警察ミッドナイトランナー (Midnight Runner)	NTV	Police-academy action comedy with Kento Nakajima and Sho Hirano
2021	天国と地獄〜サイコな2人〜 (Heaven and Hell: Soul Exchange)	TBS (Sunday Theater)	One of 2021’s biggest hits: Haruka Ayase and Issei Takahashi as a detective and a suspected killer who swap bodies
2021	ただ離婚してないだけ (Tada Rikon Shitenai Dake)	TV Tokyo	Dark suspense about a marriage that looks fine from the outside
2021	SUPER RICH	Fuji TV (Thursday Theater)	Business drama starring Emi Takei about the rise and fall of a startup
2022	クロサギ (Kurosagi)	TBS (Friday Drama)	Remake starring Sho Hirano as a con man who swindles swindlers
2024	さよならのつづき (Beyond Goodbye)	Netflix	Romance with Kasumi Arimura and Kentaro Sakaguchi about a man who receives a heart transplant
2025	匿名の恋人たち (Romantics Anonymous)	Netflix	Japan–Korea co-production with Shun Oguri and Han Hyo-joo, where many viewers outside Japan first saw her
2025	終幕のロンド ―もう二度と、会えないあなたに―	Fuji TV / KTV	Drama about a company that clears out the homes of people who have died
2025	１１９エマージェンシーコール (119 Emergency Call)	Fuji TV (Monday 9 p.m.)	Ensemble drama set inside a Yokohama emergency dispatch center

Her other TV work includes Garasu no Ashi (2015), Nusumareta Kao (WOWOW, 2019), Omoshiro Nankyoku Ryōrinin (2019), Watashitachi wa Dōka Shiteiru (2020) and Tokkai (2021).

On the big screen, she appeared in Sakuran (2007), Parade (2010), Hayabusa: Harukanaru Kikan (2012), After the Storm (2016), The 8-Year Engagement (2017), Fukushima 50 (2020), Arc (2021) and Ichiko (2023), among many others.

Tributes

Colleagues responded with shock and grief. Their comments, reported in Japanese media and paraphrased here in English:

MARI, her YURIMARI partner and friend of 35 years: she never complained, was full of compassion, and was kind, strong and beautiful to everyone.
Ryohei Suzuki, who met her at acting school 20 years ago: strong yet soft, dignified and beautiful, “like a lily.”
Jun Kaname, who recently played her husband: he resents how cruel illness is.
Jun Fubuki: quiet and kind, a wonderful actress.

Koji Seto, Hideo Nakano, director Shunji Iwai, kabuki actor Koshiro Matsumoto and singer Shikao Suga also paid tribute. Suga said he last contacted her in July, when she stepped away to rest.

Thank You, Yuri

Her name means “lily,” and Ryohei Suzuki reached for the same flower when he described her. She kept working for thirteen years knowing she was ill, and stayed kind to the people around her. Her performances are still there for anyone who wants to watch them again.

May she rest in peace. 心よりご冥福をお祈りいたします。

References

Culture, Japan

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