noon (ヌーン) is a Japanese jazz vocalist who records and performs under that single lower-case stage name. Her official biography says she was born in Osaka Prefecture and that her roots are in Korea. Neither her official site nor her label's profile gives a birth date. The biography also says she was drawn to jazz in junior high school, when a television commercial carried the singing of Harry Connick Jr. CDJournal's artist note adds that she had almost no live experience when a chance meeting with the producer Gonzalez Suzuki led to her debut.

That debut was Better Than Anything, released by Victor on October 22, 2003 (VICJ-61153). All twelve songs are covers: "Moonglow," "Moon River," "One Note Samba," "Bluesette," "Close to You" and "It Had to Be You," among others, with the pianist Shinji Akita (秋田慎治), the guitarists Ryo Ogiwara (荻原亮) and Hiroyuki Tominaga (富永寛之) and the bassist Shinichi Sato (佐藤慎一) listed in the band. Her first official website described the record as "daytime jazz," a nod to the name noon, and its release copy compared the lightness of her voice with Blossom Dearie and Billie Holiday. "Danke Schoen" was used in a television commercial for NTT DoCoMo, and in January 2004 her singing of "Close to You" was chosen for a Toyota Home commercial. That same month she completed a solo tour built around the Blue Note clubs nationwide, which her official biography calls unusual for a newcomer. The debut was also released in South Korea (C&L Music, CNLR 0401-2), and she travelled to Korea to promote it.

My Fairy Tale followed on December 16, 2004 (VICJ-61242), released in Japan and Korea at the same time and produced by Gonzalez Suzuki, with the guitarist Yosuke Onuma (小沼ようすけ) as a guest on one track and the flutist Steve Sacks in the band; the Toyota Home version of "Close to You" is a bonus track. From April 2005 until June 2011 she was a regular on TIME MACHINE CAFE on ZIP-FM in Nagoya. Smilin' (February 8, 2006, VICJ-61344), her third album and the first she produced herself, includes her first song in Japanese, "Namida Sou Sou" (涙そうそう), and a band of the pianist Yuki Arimasa, Yasuhiko "Hachi" Sato on bass, Cecil Monroe and Tsutomu Kojima on drums and Tomonao Hara on trumpet, with Onuma again as guest. The music magazine Adlib named it its best record of the year. Her official biography says simultaneous releases in Korea and Thailand around this time began to build her audience across Asia.

She followed with Holy Wishes (November 8, 2006, VICJ-61394), a Christmas mini-album produced by Tatsuya Nishiwaki, and then with her fourth album, made in a city she had long wanted to visit. Walk with Thee in New Orleans (March 21, 2007, VICJ-61441) was recorded in New Orleans and produced by the trumpeter and arranger Leroy Jones, who played in Harry Connick Jr.'s band. Her first official site says she had visited the city several times and spent time with local musicians before the sessions. The band includes Jones on trumpet and flugelhorn, Craig Klein on trombone, Alonzo Bowens on tenor saxophone and clarinet, Christopher Todd Duke on guitar, Paul Longstreth on piano, Nobumasa Ozaki on bass, Bernard Johnson on drums, Matt Rhody on violin and Helen Gillet on cello. The set mixes "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans" and "Georgia on My Mind" with Leon Russell's "A Song for You" and a Japanese song, "Koishikute" (恋しくて) by BEGIN. Her first best-of, For You - noon's best (November 7, 2007, VICJ-61532), added four unreleased songs, and she marked it with mini-concerts and signing sessions in Osaka on November 24 and in Tokyo on December 14, 2007.

On June 11, 2008 she sang on "TEOREMA," the first single from FROG, the solo project of Reiji Okii, a former member of the group Cymbals. Homecoming (September 24, 2008, VICJ-61567) turned to 1970s folk and pop songs, among them "Scarborough Fair," "Vincent," "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" and "Daydream Believer," and was produced by the pianist and producer Masanori Sasaji, with the guitarists Yosuke Onuma, Hiroyuki Tominaga and Takashi Nishiumi, the bassists Yosuke Inoue and Vagabond Suzuki, and the drummers Manabu Sakata and Juasa Kanoh. Songbook (December 2009, VICJ-61615), an album of pop covers, carries an illustration by the picture-book artist Korobokkuru. According to her official biography she was invited to the Hua Hin Jazz Festival in Thailand in 2009 and again in 2010, the only artist from Japan on those bills. Once Upon a Time (October 26, 2011, VICJ-61659) is a nostalgic set that includes "Que Sera, Sera," "At Last" and "What a Wonderful World," with Tomonao Hara on trumpet, Shota Watanabe on piano and Yosuke Onuma and Yoshitaka Kanno on guitars.

Natural (October 31, 2012, VICJ-61676), which her label calls her first bossa nova album, was produced and arranged by Yoichi Murata, with the Japanese bossa nova guitarist Yoshiro Nakamura among the players. It opens with a song by Yumi Arai, "Yasashisa ni Tsutsumareta nara," and takes in "The Girl from Ipanema," "Chega de Saudade" and "Desafinado." In 2013 she performed at the Java Jazz Festival in Indonesia; her label's profile lists Java Jazz appearances in both 2012 and 2013.

Full Moon (November 20, 2013, VICJ-61694) marked ten years since her debut and was produced by José James, the Blue Note vocalist. It was recorded in New York with his band. CDJournal and Billboard Japan list Chris Bowers on piano, Solomon Dorsey on bass, Richard Spaven on drums, Takuya Kuroda on trumpet and Corey King on trombone. The repertoire pairs standards such as "Embraceable You," "Just You, Just Me" and "When I Fall in Love" with songs by Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell, Burt Bacharach and the Carpenters. CDJournal ran an interview with her on November 19, 2013, titled "One Full Moon in Ten Years," and the album reached fourth place on the Tower Records jazz album chart in the week of November 18. Her blog later shared a photograph of her with James on the first day of recording, taken by Shino Yanagawa (柳川詩乃), who also worked on the jacket photography.

The best-of Ballads (January 22, 2014, VICJ-61698) collects fourteen ballads she chose from her earlier albums, with a cover illustration by Yoko Nagamiya (永宮陽子). Two days after its release she reported that it stood fifth on the iTunes jazz album chart. In February 2014 she toured behind Full Moon, including a Nagoya Blue Note date, and in March 2014 she sang again for a Kirishima Shuzo advertising spot, about two years after the first. The Thai label Hitman issued Ballads in Thailand on February 1, 2017. Love Voyage (November 25, 2015, VICJ-61744) is a travelogue of world songs, from "La Vie en Rose" and "Cheek to Cheek" to "Dancing Queen," "Blackbird," "Cinema Paradiso," "Amapola" and "Ave Maria." Her blog says the pianist and organist Jun Miyagawa arranged every track, and recording began on August 4, 2015. The violinist maiko lists the album among the recordings she took part in, and a Taiwanese edition (Welcome Music, WMJC0030) followed in 2017. A Love Voyage tour took her through Yokohama's Motion Blue, Nagoya's Blue Note and a Kyushu leg in early 2016.

Her official biography says she spent several years performing with the jazz violinist maiko before they made a record together, and a duo tour in September 2020 ended at JZ Brat in Shibuya. Their five-song mini-album Seasons appeared on August 17, 2021, sold first at the tour venues and online from September 1: "Amapola," "Summertime," "'Tis Autumn," "500 Miles," and "Sakura Saku" (桜咲く), a maiko composition with lyrics by noon that her official biography now counts among her signature songs. The pianist is listed as Keiji Matsumoto (松本圭司). She has continued to appear in Tokyo and Nagoya clubs, sang a New Orleans themed duo evening with the pianist YANCY at Blue Note Place in Ebisu on October 14, 2023, and has appeared live on a Shibuya radio programme several times since 2022.

She is still performing in 2026. Her own listings and blog show a birthday duo tour in February (with the guitarist 清水行人 at Mona Petro in Nagoya, and with the pianist ぱくよんせ at Gallery Zing in Kobe), a noon and maiko spring tour in April (Nagoya, Kobe and Wakayama), a daytime show at Dolphy in Yokohama in May, summer dates in Kobe, Nagoya and Yokohama, and an autumn concert at Star Eyes in Nagoya on October 10. A Christmas concert at Star Eyes is announced for December 25, 2026, with 清水行人 on guitar and 中嶋美弥 on piano.

She names Harry Connick Jr. as the singer who turned her toward jazz, and she went on to make an album in his home city of New Orleans with a trumpeter from his band. Her label describes her as an "organic" jazz vocalist, and the release copy for Smilin' pitches the music as jazz for an afternoon tea break rather than the late hours usually associated with the genre. The release copy for her debut compares her to Blossom Dearie and Billie Holiday.

Her method is repertoire. The albums combine standards by Gershwin, Cole Porter and others with pop and film songs, notably Burt Bacharach, the Beatles, Carole King, James Taylor, Stevie Wonder, the Carpenters and ABBA, and she sings mostly in English, with Japanese-language songs such as "Namida Sou Sou" and "Koishikute" on some albums. Individual albums have a theme: New Orleans, 1970s folk, nostalgia, bossa nova, travel, ballads, the four seasons. The accompaniment is typically a small band of piano, guitar, bass and drums, sometimes with a guest such as a trumpet, flute or violin, as on Smilin', My Fairy Tale and Holy Wishes.

Her catalogue is filed under jazz by Discogs and by Apple Music, and the jazz press and clubs have been a steady part of her career, from Adlib's best record award and the Blue Note club tours to the José James sessions. She also has a substantial pop side, including television commercials and the folk and pop cover albums Homecoming and Songbook, which is why this profile tags her with both Vocal Jazz and Jazz Pop.