The Mainichi Daily News published a story on Hikaru Wakao, a lady who is billed as the world’s oldest active stripper.

Hikaru Wakao, whose exact age is unknown, says that she is a few years from reaching 70. She is also famous for  the historical plays she performs before her striptease.

The printed story says that Wakao’s parents divorced soon after she was born, and she never went to school, instead touring the country with her music hall performer father, who also taught her how to dance. She married her husband at 17, and became a stepmother to his three children.

Wakao and her husband formed their own theater company, but soon after a truck accident on a mountain cliff in Gifu Prefecture killed seven of their performers and severely injured her husband and troupe leader.  The remainder of the fledgling company broke up, and times became very hard for Wakao and her family.

“I don’t want my children to experience living in poverty,” she told herself and, remembering her own childhood, made a decision. She would become a stripper.

Wakao and her husband cried all through the night before her first burlesque performance, but when she got on stage and began to dance, she was overcome by the spirit of a performer. Her husband, who has very high artistic standards, came and sat in the audience, hooting and catcalling. Frustrated by her own performances, she would sometimes spend all night practicing her act after the customers had all gone home.

Wakao has been  professional stripper for some 50 years now. The report says that  she is also grandmother to five children, and suffers from a sore back.