Instagram Model Aoi Fujino Dies at 27 After Sharing Details of Her Life Living with a Rare Form of Cancer

Aoi Fujino, a Japanese Instagram model, died on Jan. 5, her mother shared in a statement posted to the social media platform. Fujino was 27.

The internet personality — who maintained a following of over 70,000 on Instagram, and was a well-known model throughout Japan — had frequently shared photos from her life on her account, including imagery from her modeling shoots. She also openly shared what it was like living with rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare, aggressive form of soft tissue cancer, after her diagnosis in 2023. 

On Dec. 31, Fujino told her followers that she was officially retiring from content creation in an emotional letter she shared to her Instagram account, thanking her fans for supporting her over the past five years.

“To be honest, I am extremely disappointed that my retirement has come to an end in this way,” she wrote, as translated from Japanese to English. “I feel that this is not the way that anyone, including myself, had hoped.”

In the letter, Fujino shared that she had returned to her hometown the previous July and that she had been “in poor health ever since.”

“Everything is getting worse, and it really feels like anything could happen at any time. I’m fighting a daily battle with my body, which is on the edge of its limits,” she continued.

In an interview with Japanese magazine Gendai Media, Fujino revealed she first received her diagnosis in January 2023 after she saw a doctor for loss of partial hearing in her right ear. She received a biopsy surgery, learned that her tumor was malignant and began chemotherapy shortly after. 

Though she took a hiatus from public events after her diagnosis, Fujino returned to the public eye at a trading card event in August 2024. And in an interview the following September, she said that she would be attempting to make a return to content creation, adding that it “would be a waste to spend every day resting, afraid of the unknown future.”

However, even as she received several awards from Weekly Playboy, a Japanese magazine, over the next year and a half, her condition continued to worsen, and she was unable to continue to make public appearances.

In the comments of the statement announcing her death, fans of the late internet star posted tributes in her memory.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.  

“Rest in peace. I will never forget your smile😢🙏 Thank you very much,” shared one.

“You were so wonderful and full of kindness 😭 Rest in peace” penned another.

Wrote a third: “Loved by everyone, she is a proud daughter to her mother☆.”