is a Japanese

Japanese people

The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...

 tenor.

He was born in Yomitan, Okinawa Prefecture

Okinawa Prefecture

is one of Japan's southern prefectures. It consists of hundreds of the Ryukyu Islands in a chain over long, which extends southwest from Kyūshū to Taiwan. Okinawa's capital, Naha, is located in the southern part of Okinawa Island...

. He was blinded shortly after birth when a midwife put overly-strong drops in his eyes. When he was a year old, his parents divorced and his Mexican-American father went back to the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. His mother, who was Japanese, remarried when he was still a child and Tsutomu was sent to live with his maternal grandmother. His grandmother raised him until he was 14 when she died. He was then raised in a minister's family. Later he discovered singing in church. The CD "Sugar Cane Field" ｢さとうきび畑｣ recorded best 3 of the classical CD sales number of sheets of 2002.

The Fuji TV movie Mada Minu Chichi e, Haha e [まだ見ぬ父へ母へ] (To the Father and Mother I Still Haven't Seen) is a dramatization his life.

Reference