Акира Хокуто: Жапон күрес тарихындағы легенда

Japanese professional wrestler
The year 1993 is considered by many to be the best year of her career. She feuded with Shinobu Kandori of the LLPW promotion during the inter promotional period, where the major promotions active in women's wrestling in Japan at the time combined to run shows with dream match ups that attracted some of the largest cards in history. At AJW All Star Dreamslam on April 2, 1993, Hokuto defeated Kandori, which was given a perfect five star rating by Dave Meltzer and is considered by some to be the greatest women's match in history. Hokuto and several other GAEA wrestlers, including Chigusa Nagayo, KAORU, Meiko Satomura, and Sonoko Kato, came to America to compete in a tournament to crown the first WCW Women's Champion. Hokuto competed in the first round of the tournament twice, using both the Akira Hokuto and Reina Jabuki gimmicks. As Reina Jabuki, she lost in the first round to Madusa Miceli. Due to this TV appearance, she was stripped of the CMLL title. As Akira Hokuto, she won the tournament, defeating Madusa in the finals, held at WCW's Starrcade on December 29, 1996, in Nashville, Tennessee. Hokuto later defeated Madusa at WCW's The Great American Bash on June 15, 1997, a match where Madusa was forced to 'retire' due to a stipulation. This was the last time Hokuto ever appeared in WCW and the Women's Championship was apparently dropped, as it was never defended or mentioned again. This made her the only WCW Women's Champion.

In 1996, she left AJW and joined Chigusa Nagayo's new promotion, Gaea Japan. Unlike most Japanese women wrestlers, who retire when they marry and start a family, she returned to the ring in 1999 and won GAEA's AAAW Tag Team Championship in 2000 with Mayumi Ozaki. The year 2000 also saw her induction into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in recognition of her skill and contributions. For her retirement match on April 7, 2002, Hokuto teamed up with Meiko Satomura to face Ayako Hamada and Chigusa Nagayo. In her last match to date on February 11, 2006, at a Kensuke Office show, she took part in a battle royal where the winner would receive ¥120,000. The match was eventually won by Minoru Suzuki. She also served as the chief executive officer of Hawaii Championship Wrestling for a period of time during a Japan vs. Hawaii feud, as well as engaged in several squash matches against comedy wrestler Stalker Ichikawa, and became the first woman in history to compete in a match in All Japan Pro Wrestling against Kendo Kashin, a match that Hokuto won in just 3 minutes with the aid of outside interference. She has made various media appearances as a "mother celebrity". In 2010, for example, she appeared in a television commercial for "Mama Gohan" (lit. "Mama Meal"), a co product by Ajinomoto and popular women's magazine I Love Mama, along with three female gyaru mother models. On September 23, 2015, Hokuto announced she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and was undergoing surgery the following day to have her right breast removed. The surgery was successful and will need several months to recuperate.