Hayashi starred in more than 400 adult movies during her 16-year career.
On the morning of June 28, adult video director Katsuyuki Hirano and a production assistant asked Hayashi’s mother to let them into her apartment after the actress failed to show up to work for several days.
They found the star in her bed and quickly called for an ambulance, but were several days too late.
“Yukima’s mom was shattered — screaming, crying and going half crazy,” a friend of Hayashi said.
Police said there was no obvious evidence of a struggle or foul play. An associate of the video company Hayashi worked for said she had no health problems but that a “massive amount of sleeping pills” were found in her bedroom, leading to speculation that she committed suicide.
Another company employee said Hayashi had been depressed for months since a relationship with her live-in boyfriend went sour earlier this year.
Other friends, however, say the idea of Hayashi taking her own life is not within the range of possibilities.
“She told me that she’d just found a new boyfriend and was really happy,” adult director Yumi Yoshiyuki, who directed Hayashi’s final video, said.
In addition to her work in erotica, Hayashi also was featured in several mainstream documentaries.
