Akiko Nagashima
Akiko Nagashima (born Akiko Nishimura; January 5, 1943 – September 18, 2007) was a Japanese businesswoman and the wife of famous baseball star Shigeo Nagashima. She led Office N Co., Ltd., the Nagashima family’s business office.
She was born in Shibuya, Tokyo. Her grandfather, Nishimura Tatsugoro, ran a publishing company that printed important poetry, and her father, Mitsuo Nishimura, led Naigai Publishing. Akiko studied in the United States during school and earned a degree from the College of Saint Teresa in Minnesota. She spoke fluent English, French, and Spanish and worked as a hostess at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
Akiko met Shigeo Nagashima at a talk and they got engaged on November 26, 1964. They married on January 26, 1965 at a Catholic church in Shibuya in a ceremony watched by many. They had four children: two sons, Kazushige and Masaoki, and two daughters, Yuki and Mina.
In 2002 she joined the Environment Ministry’s Wa-no-Kuni Living Conference to speak about environmental issues. On March 4, 2004, her husband had a stroke, and she supported his rehabilitation. In June 2004, her eldest son Kazushige’s wife gave birth to twin daughters, making Akiko a grandmother for the first time.
She rarely appeared in the media but did make a brief TV appearance. On September 18, 2007, after feeling unwell following a dinner with Kazushige and his wife, she died of heart failure at age 64. After her death, her daughter Mina became CEO of Office N. Kazushige has said her grave is in Hawaii.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 17:10 (CET).