Narrator / voice actor Akira Kume dies of heart disease - News
Actor, narrator and dubber Akira Kume died of heart failure in a Tokyo nursing home on Thursday. He was 96 years old.
The Tokyo native attended the Tokyo Universtiy of Commerce (now known as Hitotsubashi University) during the Japanese post-war period. He founded the Japanese Society for Theater Research in 1949. He appeared in the NHK "serial TV novel" Ashita Koso in 1968, and has performed in a variety of other television series and films.
Kume is known for his work as a storyteller and dubber. He narrated the NHK variety program Greeting of Tsurube to the families and continued to work into her 90s. Kume narrated anime like botchan, In The Beginning - The Bible Stories, and Fenice, and had roles in Doraemon: Nobita's the Night Before a Wedding, Space Adventure Cobra - The Movie, and Penguin's Memory: Shiawase Monogatari. According to Kume's family, he dropped out of the story last year due to his health and moved to a Tokyo nursing home.
Kume received the Purple Ribbon Medal from the Japanese government in 1992, as well as the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Golden Rays with Rosette in 1997.
Source: NHK through Hachima Kiko
