Izumi Sakai was a Japanese Pop singer, song writer, and member of the group Zard. Zard (ザード) was a Japanese pop rock group. Originally a group of five members, with lead vocalist Izumi Sakai as group leader. However, Sakai was the only member who stayed on in the group while others joined and left regularly.

As such, Zard and Sakai may be referred to interchangeably. Zard's work was sold under the record label B-Gram Records, Inc. Their most popular and successful songs are "Makenaide" (1993) (負けないで?), "Yureru Omoi" (1993) (揺れる想い?), and "My Friend" (1996). -Wikipedia (US) ZARD/Izumi Sakai