Sadaho Maeda, better known as his stage name Shinichi "Sonny" Chiba has passed away at 82 from complications with COVID-19. Japan's Oricon News reported his passing stating that he had been hospitalized for a few weeks with pneumonia caused by the coronavirus and was on a ventilator. He never recovered.

　　Chiba had over 200 movie and television credits to his name, with modern audiences mainly knowing him from his role as master swordsmith Hattori Hanzo in Kill Bill and Uncle Kamata in Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift.

　　Chiba was also a legitimate martial artist with six black belts in ninjitsu, kendo, and judo who got his start with over 120 movies for Toei and was Japan's most popular action star for decades. At one point, doing 15 movies a year. He would also get involved in theater productions, even bringing famed samurai stories to the stage as he had already portrayed legendary samurai Yagyu Jyubei multiple times across television and film.

　　Even into his 50s, Chiba resumed working as a choreographer of martial arts sequences. In the early 2000s, he was as busy as ever in feature films as well as starring in his own series in Japan. Featured roles in director Takashi Miike's Deadly Outlaw: Rekka and his work with directors Kenta and Kinji Fukasaku in Battle Royale II, effectively brought new school and old school action cinema together.

　　In November 2007, he announced the retirement of the stage name Shinichi Chiba and preferred to be known as J.J. Sonny Chiba--which stood for Justice Japan, as an actor--and Rindo Wachinaga as a film director.

　　His final movie, Bond of Justice: Kizuna, will be released in Japan later this year.