Acting

Sakura Ando

With parents in show business, perhaps it is not surprising that Sakura Ando became an actress and, moreover, later married an actor. She was born to actor/director Okuda Eiji and celebrity Kazu Ando on 18 February 1986. Her great-grandfather was Prime Minister Tsuyoshi. Her older sister is director Ando Momoko. She saw her father on stage at age five and decided to become an actress while in second grade. She was often ill as a child; her illness made her dizzy, caused balance problems, and at times her brain would shut down. She chose her mother's maiden surname for her professional career. Sono Sion cast her in his film Love Exposure and gave her a major break on the big screen. She won Best Supporting Actress for that role at the 31st Yokohama Film Festival. Earlier, her father cast her in his film Kaze No Sotogawa (Outside the Wind) alongside her mother and sister. She has since appeared in multiple films and TV series and won several more awards. She married actor Emoto Tasuku in 2012; they met on a train in 2008 and she had obtained her father's permission to date and marry. She was a boxer in 100 Yen Love, which suited her because she had practiced boxing at age fourteen. She gave birth to her first child, a girl, in 2017. She won Best Actress at the 42nd Japan Academy Prize for her work in 2018's Shoplifters. By then she was considered one of the top young actresses in Japan alongside Yu Aoi, Miyazaki Aoi, and possibly Aso Kumiko. Interestingly, she had earlier decided to retire and focus on raising her child. She is a graduate of Gakushuin Women's College.