Nobuyo Oyama, the voice actress whose alto timbre and radiant laughter shaped how millions in Japan experienced Doraemon, the blue cartoon robot in the quintessential children’s anime of the same name, died at a hospital in Tokyo on Sept. 29. She was 90.
Her death was confirmed by phone on Friday by Yozo Morita, the chief executive of her agency, Actors 7, who said that she had suffered a stroke in 2008 and been living with dementia since 2015.
For about 25 years, Ms. Oyama was the voice of Doraemon, a character that first appeared in a manga created in 1969. Doraemon is a robot from the future, sent by its owner to the present day to help his great-great-grandfather solve his childhood problems and change his family’s fortunes.
The plump, earless, catlike robot typically helped the boy, Nobita Nobi, using gadgets from the future that he kept in his magical pocket. His deepening friendship with Nobita and his family was part of what made “Doraemon” one of the longest-running shows in Japan and beyond.
This is a developing obituary and will be updated.
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