# Sakiko Kanase (金勢さき子)
**Sakiko Kanase** (金勢さき子, Kanase Sakiko) was a Japanese model and nightclub hostess who became the companion, and by most accounts a wife, of Indonesian President Sukarno, and who died in Jakarta in 1959, weeks after Sukarno's future wife [Ratna Sari Dewi](https://www.edgepedia.org/dewi-sukarno) (Naoko Nemoto) arrived in Indonesia. She is also known by her Muslim name, Saliku Maesaroh, and, in several Japanese accounts, by the name Suō Sakiko (周防咲子).[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Other names | Saliku Maesaroh (after conversion to Islam); Suō Sakiko (周防咲子) in some Japanese accounts[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) |
| Birth | Japanese sources give 1934 (1 September 1934, Kanazawa, per one profile; 20 January 1934, per another account); Indonesian-language sources give 1935[2](https://jimbutsu.jitenon.jp/jimbutsu/p163933.php) • [1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) • [3](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh) |
| Death | Late September or early October 1959 in Jakarta; one profile gives 30 September 1959, others 3 October 1959[2](https://jimbutsu.jitenon.jp/jimbutsu/p163933.php) |
| Relationship to Sukarno | Introduced by the Kinoshita trading company; married Sukarno in 1958 according to Indonesian-language sources[4](https://vanityfair.azurewebsites.net/article/1992/7/dont-cry-for-me-indonesia) • [3](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh) |
## Early life and career
Japanese profiles describe Kanase as born in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture, and educated at Tokyo Metropolitan Meguro High School.[2](https://jimbutsu.jitenon.jp/jimbutsu/p163933.php) One detailed Japanese account, which identifies her as Suō Sakiko (周防咲子), a name it treats as an alias of Kanase, states that after graduating from Meguro High School she worked as a waitress at the Matsuzakaya department store for two years, was selected in Shōchiku's "Miss Meibō" beauty contest, and then worked as a cashier at a coffee shop. In the summer of 1955 she joined the Sumire model group and began working at a nightclub in Akasaka.[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86)
Indonesian-language sources describe her career more briefly: she began as a hostess and model at the Tokyo nightclub Benibasha, the same club where Naoko Nemoto, the future Ratna Sari Dewi, worked before moving to the Copacabana nightclub.[3](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh) • [4](https://vanityfair.azurewebsites.net/article/1992/7/dont-cry-for-me-indonesia)
## Connection with Sukarno
The introduction to Sukarno came through Japanese business interests tied to the war-reparations trade. Under the 1958 reparations agreement, Japan supplied Indonesia with 80.3 billion yen in goods, and competing trading companies sought influence in Jakarta.[5](https://hiroyukim.com/kanase-sakiko/) According to the 1992 Vanity Fair account, the rival Kinoshita Trading Company introduced President Sukarno to Kanase and installed her in Indonesia as his mistress and its agent; she had previously been a hostess at Benibasha, where Naoko Nemoto had also worked.[4](https://vanityfair.azurewebsites.net/article/1992/7/dont-cry-for-me-indonesia)
Japanese accounts give a more detailed chronology. In February 1958, while Sukarno was visiting Japan, Kanase was introduced to him in Kyoto in what was arranged to look like a chance meeting, an arrangement attributed to figures in government and ruling-party circles.[5](https://hiroyukim.com/kanase-sakiko/) In November 1958 she obtained a passport under the nominal purpose of tutoring the daughter of the Jakarta branch manager of the trading firm Kinoshita, and entered Indonesia.[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) • [5](https://hiroyukim.com/kanase-sakiko/) In Jakarta she was known as the wife of Basuki, a member of the reparations delegation, and was called "Mrs. Basuki".[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) • [5](https://hiroyukim.com/kanase-sakiko/)
When Sukarno visited Japan in 1959, he invited Kanase's parents to the Imperial Hotel on 6 June and proposed marriage.[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) She returned to Jakarta on 3 July 1959.[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) Indonesian-language sources state that she married Sukarno in 1958 and that, after converting to Islam, she took the name Saliku Maesaroh.[3](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh) Some Japanese accounts say she had already become Sukarno's third wife, though their reliability is uncertain.[6](https://tx696ditjpdl.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-4093.html)
## Death
Kanase died in Jakarta in late September or early October 1959, shortly after Naoko Nemoto arrived in Indonesia. Vanity Fair reports that a few days after Sukarno took Nemoto to his palace in Bali, Kanase killed herself by slashing her legs with a razor blade.[4](https://vanityfair.azurewebsites.net/article/1992/7/dont-cry-for-me-indonesia) A Japanese chronology places her death on 30 September 1959, at age 25.[2](https://jimbutsu.jitenon.jp/jimbutsu/p163933.php) Indonesian and Thai-language sources give 3 October 1959, at age 23 or 24, in the Menteng area of [Central Jakarta](https://www.edgepedia.org/central-jakarta), about a year after her marriage to Sukarno and three weeks after Dewi's arrival.[3](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh) One Japanese account describes her as leaving a suicide note and cutting her wrists in a bathroom.[6](https://tx696ditjpdl.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-4093.html) The scholar Yoshimi Miyake writes that Kanase began grieving when Nemoto visited Sukarno and committed suicide sixteen days later, and that her death made Sukarno cry.[7](https://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/gengobunka/bulletins/archive/pdf/2018/23YoshimiMiyake.pdf)
She was buried on 4 October at Blok P cemetery in [South Jakarta](https://www.edgepedia.org/south-jakarta), with funeral arrangements handled by M.A. Sabar, an aide to Sukarno who later commanded the Tjakrabirawa presidential guard.
## Aftermath and public attention
Her death drew the attention of the Japanese press. On 3 November 1959, one month after her death, Sukarno and Naoko Nemoto, renamed Ratna Sari Dewi, held a small unofficial marriage ceremony at the Djakarta palace; Dewi learned of Kanase's existence that day, and Sukarno told her Kanase had died.[4](https://vanityfair.azurewebsites.net/article/1992/7/dont-cry-for-me-indonesia)
Kanase's story later fed Japanese fiction about the reparations era; Kajiyama Toshiyuki's novel *Ikenie* (生贄) is among the works drawing on these events, and readers' discussions of its reissue repeatedly ask why Kanase died while Nemoto survived.[8](https://www.fukkan.com/fk/VoteComment?no=7295&s=good)
## Conflicting records
Basic dates disagree across sources. A Japanese biographical profile gives 1 September 1934 as her birth date, Kanazawa as her birthplace, and 1959 as her death date.[2](https://jimbutsu.jitenon.jp/jimbutsu/p163933.php) The detailed Japanese narrative account gives 20 January 1934 as her birth date.[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) Indonesian and Thai-language sources give 1935 as her birth year and 1959 as her death date.[3](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh) The year of her marriage to Sukarno is likewise given as 1958 by Indonesian-language sources[3](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh) while the Japanese narrative places the marriage proposal in June 1959.[1](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86) This article reports both sets of figures rather than choosing between them.
## References
1. [デヴィ夫人、貧しかった美少女が…周防咲子（別名金勢さき子）の場合, sakamichi-lover1105 (note.com)](https://note.com/sakamichi_lover/n/n1c24946f7e86)
2. [金勢さき子（モデル）のプロフィール, 人物事典 Jitenon](https://jimbutsu.jitenon.jp/jimbutsu/p163933.php)
3. [Saliku Maesaroh, Sberopedia (Indonesian)](https://id.sberopedia.org/wiki/Saliku_Maesaroh)
4. [DON'T CRY FOR ME, INDONESIA, Vanity Fair, July 1992](https://vanityfair.azurewebsites.net/article/1992/7/dont-cry-for-me-indonesia)
5. [金勢さき子（周防咲子）の現在とスカルノ大統領との関係は？, 芸能人の本名＆若い頃事典](https://hiroyukim.com/kanase-sakiko/)
6. [Awa Library Report, 2018-09-17 (family chronology of Sukarno's wives)](https://tx696ditjpdl.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-4093.html)
7. [Miyake, Yoshimi. Political and cultural aspects of Japanese war compensation to Indonesia, Meiji Gakuin bulletin](https://www.meijigakuin.ac.jp/gengobunka/bulletins/archive/pdf/2018/23YoshimiMiyake.pdf)
8. [『生贄（梶山季之）』レビュー一覧, 復刊ドットコム](https://www.fukkan.com/fk/VoteComment?no=7295&s=good)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social life and human behavior › Relationships and social issues › Marriage and partnerships › Marriage — overview*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Sep 19, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license