at her side, but it was reported that she never regained consciousness. Legacy The sudden news of Sakai's death caused an uproar in the Japanese music industry and began to dominate headlines and the "what's new" spaces on many major music websites. Music Station, a TV program, did a four-minute tribute to her during its June 1, 2007 broadcast. Due to viewer request, another tribute was aired a week later. The was released on August 15, 2007. This book contains tracks of 16 years by "Izumi Sakai's poetry" and "Comments of the staff who have helped ZARD". The book records that she was informed two days before she died, and that Sakai was encouraged by the news that she was selected. Furthermore, the day before she died, Sakai told a producer who had been with her for 16 years that she was looking forward to have a recording machine at her home so she could start working upon discharge from hospital. Public and private memorial services A closed memorial service was held on June 26 at a funeral hall in Aoyama, Tokyo for members of the entertainment industry. This was attended by celebrities such as Maki Ohguro (another female vocalist who, like Sakai, rarely appears in public and writes most of her own material and like Sakai; a phantom singer). Almost as if to illustrate Sakai's impact on the Japanese music scene and the depth of her presence, singers Tak Matsumoto and Koshi Inaba, members of the popular B'z group, pop-singer Mai Kuraki, and even baseball giant Shigeo Nagashima all left moving messages of their encounters with Sakai. Singers Hikaru Utada and Nanase Aikawa, though not personally acquainted with Sakai, also issued memorial statements on their official web pages, describing how Sakai's death had shocked them. Sakai is interred at Yokohama Midorinosato in Kanagawa Prefecture. A public memorial service for Sakai was held the next day and was attended by some 40,000 people from all over Japan. What a Beautiful Memory concert tours A series of memorial concerts were held at Osaka's Festival on September 6 and 7, as well as September 14 in Tokyo's Nippon Budokan, called What a Beautiful Memory. Tickets sold out immediately and 15,000 people gathered for the Tokyo event. Sakai's favorite microphone was placed center-stage, and a recording of Sakai's comments about her thoughts toward the lyrics from 2004 was played. Over 20 members of