Ryoko Hirosue

Ryōko Hirosue is a Japanese actress and singer who earned international recognition for her roles in the feature film Wasabi and the Academy Award-winning drama Departures. She is also widely known for her television work, including a lead role in the comedy series Yasuko to Kenji.

Hirosue was born in Yokohama and raised in Kōchi city, Japan. At age fourteen, she participated in a modeling contest for P&G and made her television singing debut the following year on TK Music Camp. She gained early public recognition as a spokesmodel for NTT DoCoMo while launching her screen career, and she later attended Waseda University without graduating.

Her acting debut came in 1995 on Fuji TV's Heart ni S, followed by an award-winning performance in Shota no Sushi. She achieved her career breakthrough in 1997 with the comedy series Beach Boys, winning a Best Supporting Actress award. That same year, she made her feature film debut in 20-seki Nostalgia, earning the Newcomer of the Year award at the 21st Japanese Academy Awards. In 1999, her performances in Poppoya and Himitsu won wide critical praise, earning her two Japanese Academy Award nominations and the Best Actress prize at the Sitges Film Festival.

During the early 2000s, Hirosue expanded her acclaim on television through award-winning roles in series such as Summer Snow, Oyaji, and Moto Kare. She made her international film debut in 2001 in the French production Wasabi, for which she learned her dialogue phonetically. In addition to film projects, she frequently co-starred with actor Yutaka Takenouchi, notably in the romantic comedy series Dekichatta Kekkon.

Hirosue married model Takahiro Okazawa in late 2003 and gave birth to her first child in 2004. After a period of reduced activity, she returned to screen work with roles in Slow Dance, Bubble Fiction: Boom or Bust, and the 2008 film Departures, which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Her subsequent projects included the films Zero Focus, Villon's Wife, and Flowers, as well as the television adaptation Naomi and Kaneko.

In her personal life, Hirosue divorced Okazawa in 2008 and married candle artist Jun Izutsu in 2010 after meeting during earthquake relief efforts in Haiti. She is the mother of three children. In mid-2023, following media reports of an extramarital affair, she announced her retirement from entertainment and divorced Izutsu, retaining custody of her children.

She resumed her career independently in February 2024. Following a traffic accident in 2025, she was briefly detained, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and hyperthyroidism, and placed on medical leave. After resolving legal proceedings related to the incident, Hirosue underwent a period of reflection before announcing the resumption of her career on April 1, 2026.