is a Japanese singer. She is a member of

Hello! Project is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but has s ...

and a former member of the

J-pop J-pop ( ja, ジェイポップ, ''jeipoppu''; often stylized as J-POP; an abbreviated form of "Japanese popular music"), natively also known simply as , is the name for a form of popular music that entered the musical mainstream of Japan in the 1 ...

group

Morning Musume , formerly simply and colloquially referred to as , are a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most top ten singles with an ...

, joining as a member of the eighth generation from the audition in Japan during December 2006. Mitsui's audition process was documented during the late 2006 episodes of

Hello! Morning was a weekly Japanese TV show featuring members of Morning Musume, and sometimes other Hello! Project members on TV Tokyo. It was also known by the shorter name of . On April 1, 2007, the show ended after seven years of broadcast. A new show f ...

. She performed

Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese singer, songwriter, record producer, actress, model, spokesperson, and entrepreneur. By 2002, Hamasaki had earned the nickname "Empress of J-pop" due to her popularity in Japan and throughout Asia. Due to her success and relevanc ...

's "

Blue Bird The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. ...

" in round one of her audition and Morning Musume's " Furusato" and " Osaka Koi no Uta" in rounds two and three. She graduated from Morning Musume on May 18, 2012. She retired from the entertainment industry to pursue culinary studies in New Zealand on November 3, 2018.

Biography

2006-2012 (Morning Musume)

On December 10, 2006, she alone out of five (originally six, but Ayami Masuda dropped out) audition finalists was chosen to join

. An article published on December 11, 2006 revealed that Mitsui wouldn't be present in the 57th edition of

Kōhaku Uta Gassen , more commonly known simply as ''Kōhaku'', is an annual New Year's Eve television special produced by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. It is broadcast live simultaneously on television and radio, nationally and internationally by the NHK net ...

but would instead be featured in the group's 32nd single, Egao Yes Nude, which was released on February 14, 2007, following her first public appearance on the last round of the Hello! Project Winter 2007 Tours, , which took place between January 27, 2007 and January 28, 2007 at

Saitama Super Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Chūō-ku, Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It opened preliminarily on May 5, 2000, and then was officially opened on September 1 of the same year. Its maximum spectator capacity is 36,500, making i ...

. She also took part in Morning Musume's 2007 Spring Tour ~Sexy 8 Beat~. One week after the results of Happy 8 Ki Audition were announced, Mitsui was featured in a small segment of

which included footage from a press conference given on the eleventh. During the conference, Mitsui revealed her goal of captivating the public by means of her cheerful personality and smile, emulating fellow member

Koharu Kusumi is a Japanese actress, model, television personality, singer, and voice actress. In 2005, she became the only seventh generation member of the Japanese girl group Morning Musume, a part of Hello! Project. While Kusumi was in Morning Musume, she p ...

, whom she admires and strives to equal or surpass. Following her concert debut, Mitsui was also featured in a small segment of the

Oha Suta ''Oha Suta'' () is a Japanese children's breakfast television show. Produced by Shogakukan-Shueisha Productions (ShoPro) for TV Tokyo, the show airs on TV Tokyo & TX Network. It premiered in 1997 as a relaunch of (. ''Sutajio'' is a loanword f ...

morning programme entitled , which purports to show the viewers a fictionalized account of the events following her first concert appearances, dealing with Mitsui's sadness over the fact she had to part with her former classmates due to her becoming an idol. Her first appearance at a non-Hello! Project related event took place on February 8, 2007, on

Utaban was a Japanese music variety show, broadcast weekly from October 15, 1996 until March 23, 2010 on TBS. The name of the show is an abbreviation of , meaning "music program". A special version of the show, running for two hours, was occasionally ai ...

, as part of

. In October 2007, Mitsui was placed in the unit Athena & Robikerottsu along with fellow Morning Musume member

Risa Niigaki is a Japanese actress and singer. She was a fifth-generation member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2001 along with 3 others- Ai Takahashi, Asami Konno and Makoto Ogawa. She grew up in Yokohama after movin ...

, as well as Saki Nakajima and

Chisato Okai (born June 21, 1994, in Saitama, Japan) is a former Japanese pop singer, actress, model, and television personality. She first gained recognition when she joined Hello! Project Kids and later became one of the main vocalists of the Japanese i ...

Cute Cuteness is a subjective term describing a type of attractiveness commonly associated with youth and appearance, as well as a scientific concept and analytical model in ethology, first introduced by Konrad Lorenz. Lorenz proposed the concept ...

. On the November 25, 2007 episode of

Haromoni@ was the sequel to the long-running Japanese variety show ''Hello! Morning'', which first aired on April 8, 2007, on TV Tokyo and later throughout the country. The show was recorded in HD and starred Morning Musume members. Each member represen ...

, Mitsui got the voice role of Gurossan in the anime

Kirarin Revolution is a Japanese manga series by An Nakahara. The series ran in the ''shōjo'' manga magazine ''Ciao'' from March 2004 to June 2009, with side stories running in ''Pucchigumi'' in 2006. The manga sold a cumulative total of over 10 million ...

starring Kirari Tsukishima, voiced by Koharu Kusumi. On April 6, 2008, Hello! Project announced that Mitsui would not be able to perform in the 2008 spring tour due to her being in very poor health. Later in the week, it was discovered that she had suffered from

acute appendicitis Appendicitis is inflammation of the appendix. Symptoms commonly include right lower abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and decreased appetite. However, approximately 40% of people do not have these typical symptoms. Severe complications of a rup ...

, and would be out of action for two more weeks. Between December 15, 2010 (the graduation of

Linlin Qian Lin (born March 11, 1991), better known in Japan as , is a Chinese singer. She is a former Morning Musume member and leader of the Hello! Project sub-group Shin Minimoni. She was announced to be joining as the eighth generation of Morning ...

) and January 2, 2011 (the addition of

Mizuki Fukumura is a Japanese singer, dancer, and actress. She is a ninth-generation member, current leader of the pop group Morning Musume as well as the current and seventh leader of Hello Project. Prior to becoming part of Morning Musume, Fukumura was known ...

Erina Ikuta is a Japanese pop singer, dancer, actress and former model. She is a ninth generation member of J-pop group Morning Musume. She joined Morning Musume in 2011 along with Riho Sayashi, Kanon Suzuki and Mizuki Fukumura. On 26 November 2014, she b ...

Riho Sayashi Riho Sayashi (鞘師里保 ''Sayashi Riho''; born May 28, 1998 in Hiroshima, Japan) is a Japanese dancer, actress, and singer. She is a former ninth generation member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume, along with Mizuki Fukumura, Erina Iku ...

and

Kanon Suzuki Kanon may refer to: Buddhism * Kanon, a Japanese name for Guanyin, a Buddhist spiritual figure Media and literature * ''Kanon'' (video game), a Japanese visual novel by Key, later adapted into anime series * ''Kanon'' (manga), a manga by Chiho ...

), Mitsui was the only member of Morning Musume under the age of 20. She was injured in the Spring 2011 during the last few dates of Morning Musume's Fantasy DX concert tour. She suffered a fracture to her ankle which put her out of concert action. She continued to participate in live performances sitting on a stool. Mid 2011 it was announced that her injury had become worse. She was ordered to bed rest by the doctor. She took part in Morning Musume's 47th Single, but did not appear in the dance shot accompanying the single. Aika did not participate in the 2011 Morning Musume fall concert until the final day on September 30, when

Ai Takahashi (born September 14, 1986) is a Japanese singer and actress formerly associated with the Hello! Project and is best known as the leader of Morning Musume and Hello! Project until 2011. She is also a former member of its popular subgroup Mini Moni ...

graduated from the group. However, she was featured in all of the concert goods that were released. On May 4, 2012, Mitsui announced that she would graduate from Morning Musume along with the current leader,

, on the 18th of the same month. This was due to her ankle injury which put her on hiatus since spring the previous year. Mitsui was the first to leave the group, but not Hello! Project since the Elder Club graduated in 2009. In October 2012, it was announced that Mitsui would be a member of the new unit GREEN FIELDS alongside

Saki Shimizu is a J-pop singer. Her career began in 2002 when she passed the audition for Hello! Project Kids, an all-female teen pop group within Hello! Project. She continued to sing in that group and became a part of two smaller groups composed of H ...

and

Yuka Miyazaki is a Japanese television personality and former pop singer. She was formerly the leader of the Hello! Project group Juice=Juice. Her fruit in the group was peach. Miyazaki is represented by Up-Front Promotion. Biography *From June to August 20 ...

2013–present (Post Morning Musume)

On March 2 and 3, Mitsui participated in SATOYAMA e Yukou ~Forest For Rest~ along with other Hello! Project and UP-FRONT PROMOTION members. It was announced that Mitsui would "graduate" from Young Town. She was replaced by Iikubo Haruna beginning in April. Beginning on April 6, Mitsui became a regular on the radio show "ALMA KAMINIITO Sound Map," replacing Ohno Munehiko. In May, Mitsui starred in a new stageplay called Okujou Wonderland. From October 12 to 20, Mitsui performed in a play called Nettai Danshi 2 in Zenrosai Hall / Space Zero. In April 2014, Mitsui went aboard to New Zealand to study English. She would return one year later, upon announcement on her blog that she is writing English-language news and event reports for UP-FRONT LINK, UP-FRONT's international company news service. On February 25, Mitsui accompanied Morning Musume '16 on their trip to Houston, Texas where they were main guests at Anime Matsuri 2016, which took place from February 26 to 28. On July 5, she announced that she will be going back to New Zealand to further her English studies again. On November 5, 2018, it was announced that Mitsui had terminated her contract with J.P. Room.

Hello Project groups and units

(2006–2012) * Athena & Robikerottsu * Guardians 4 * Green Fields (2012–)

References

External links

Official Blog: Aika no Pastel Color Days (FC Limited) (English Translations)

Official Hello! Project profile

Graduation announcement on Hello Sayuunii
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitsui, Aika 1993 births People from Ōtsu, Shiga 21st-century Japanese women singers 21st-century Japanese singers Japanese child singers Japanese women pop singers Japanese female idols Japanese voice actresses Living people Morning Musume members Tanpopo members Voice actors from Shiga Prefecture Musicians from Shiga Prefecture