Akira Hokuto(real name Hisako Sasaki), best known in the west as the only WCW Women’s Champion, announced on her blog (Japanese) that she has been diagnosed with breast cancer. Mainstream Japanese sites like Huffington Post Japan have picked up the story. No real proper translation has shown up yet, so some of the details are still vague, but what’s clear is that doctors have discovered a malignant tumor in her right breast and she’s going to be undergoing surgery. The details lost in translation are just how major the surgery is (removing the tumor vs. removing the entire breast or both breasts).
In Japan, there are cultural taboos and superstition when it comes to talking about cancer. When past Japanese wrestling superstars, like Giant Baba, had cancer, it was kept quiet. When Baba passed away, it was reported as being from “internal organ disease,” Hokuto is a huge mainstream television star in Japan, regularly appearing on talk shows, variety shows, travel shows, etc. She has enough of a media presence that speaking openly about her battle with cancer (and especially breast cancer) could legitimately have a pretty big cultural impact.
Hokuto is usually considered, at worst, on of the five greatest female workers of all time. Under her real (maiden) name of Hisako Uno, she was being groomed for stardom by the All Japan Women promotion in the late ’80s  when she broke her neck taking a second rope tombstone piledriver in the first fall of a best two out of three falls match. Somehow, she finished the match, which was the beginning of her well-earned reputation for toughness and working through injuries. She returned as “Dangerous Queen” Akira Hokuto and made her mark one of the very best in the world regardless of gender throughout the ’90s and into the early aughts.
