Sumiko Shirakawa was a Japanese voice actress born on June 26, 1935, in Tokyo, Japan. A graduate of Keio University, she began her career in the 1960s and was active in the industry until her death in 2015. She was affiliated with the theatre group Gekidan Kengeki. Shirakawa passed away on November 25, 2015, at the age of 80 due to a subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Shirakawa was known for specializing in roles for young boys. Her career spanned five decades, during which she became a familiar voice in Japanese anime, most notably for two long-running series. She was the voice of Hiroshi Nakajima in the nationally beloved series Sazae-san from its beginning in 1969 until her final episode aired just days after her death in 2015. She was also well-known as the voice of the studious Hidetoshi Dekisugi in the Doraemon anime franchise, first in the 1973 series and then in the long-running 1979 series and its associated films until 2005.

Her extensive filmography includes many other notable roles from the 1960s onward. In the 1960s, she played the title role in Space Ace, Check in Kaitō Pride, and Bacchiri in Jump Out! Batchiri. During the 1970s, her work included roles such as Hakase and Shinichi Ōhara in Shin Obake no Q-Taro. She played Motoko Naniwa in the first series of Himitsu no Akko-chan, Roko in Bōken Shōnen Shadar, and Yayoi in Cat Eyed Boy. She also voiced Alexis Acquin in Nobody's Boy Remi and had roles in other classic series like GeGeGe no Kitarō, Kyojin no Hoshi, and Tom Sawyer no Bōken. One of her later roles was in the 2014 series Space Dandy, which, along with Sazae-san, stands as one of her final performances.