阿久悠 (Aku Yū) -- Japanese lyricist, poet, and author. Born February 7, 1937, died August 1, 2007.
By far the best-selling songwriter in Japanese popular music history, with sales of almost 70 million singles. Wrote lyrics for a vast number of popular Japanese stars including Hibari Misora, Pink Lady, Aki Yashiro, Akiko Wada, Shinichi Mori, Finger 5, Kenji Sawada and many others.