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Keisuke Kuwata's older sister, Eriko Iwamoto, has died after a battle with breast cancer. She was 56. The Southern All Stars singer was very close to her and most fans believe that she inspired, "Itoshi no Eri", one of the band's major hit songs. Kuwata sings the song to his wife, Yuko Hara, but the name and sentiments suggest he was thinking of his sister who had moved away to live in California after she married. She lived there for over twenty years and her brother occasionally called on her English skills for lyrics to some of his compositions. She had returned to Japan with her family in the 90s and lived in Chigasaki where she had grown up with Kuwata.