(born June 21, 1994, in Saitama,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

) is a former

Japanese 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 ...

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 idol An is a type of entertainer marketed for image, attractiveness, and personality in Japanese pop culture. Idols are primarily singers with training in acting, dancing, and modeling. Idols are commercialized through merchandise and endorsements b ...

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring several female singers who generally harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female pop music singing groups, many of who ...

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 ...

which she joined in 2005 and engaged in until 2017.

Career

2002–2005: Hello! Project Kids

In 2002, Okai auditioned for Hello! Project Kids with the song "Country Road" by

Yoko Honna Yoko may refer to: People * Yoko (name), a Japanese feminine given name; variants include Yōko and Yohko * Yoko Gushiken (具志堅用高, born 1955), Japanese professional boxer * Yoko Taro (横尾太郎, born 1970), Japanese video game di ...

. Her audition tape was aired on

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 ...

's variety show ''

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 was placed in the group with fourteen other girls. In the same year, she appeared in the movie ''Koinu Dan no Monogatari''.

2005-2017: Cute

In 2004,

Berryz Kobo was a Japanese girl group formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2004 and associated with Hello! Project. The group's members consisted of Hello! Project Kids members Saki Shimizu, Momoko Tsugunaga, Miyabi Natsuyaki, Chinami Tokunaga, Maasa Sudo, Y ...

was created with the intention of rotating all of the members of Hello! Project Kids to make time for school, but the idea was later scrapped, and the remaining girls who were not chosen were re-branded under the name

on June 11, 2005. In September 2007, Okai was added to a new unit called Athena & Robikerottsu with

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 ...

Aika Mitsui is a Japanese singer. She is a member of Hello! Project and a former member of the J-pop group Morning Musume, joining as a member of the eighth generation from the audition in Japan during December 2006. Mitsui's audition process was documente ...

, and Saki Nakajima. They sang the opening and ending theme songs for the

A-1 Pictures is a Japanese animation studio founded by ex-Sunrise producer Mikihiro Iwata and it is a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment Japan's anime production firm Aniplex. History The studio was established by SMEJ's animation production division, ...

anime ''Robby & Kerobby''. The unit was effectively disbanded in March 2008, entering into an indefinite hiatus when the series ended. In 2009, Okai joined a newly formed unit called Tanpopo#, a revival of former Hello! Project unit Tanpopo, with

Eri Kamei is a Japanese pop singer and model. She is a former member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined in late 2003 as a sixth generation member along with Miki Fujimoto, Sayumi Michishige, and Reina Tanaka. She graduated on December 1 ...

Yurina Kumai is a Japanese pop singer and fashion model. She is a member of Berryz Kobo (activities suspended indefinitely) and former member of Hello! Project Kids. Her signature color is green. Born in Kanagawa, Japan. Her blood type is B, and her heigh ...

, and

. On November 9, 2010, a solo video of Okai performing the dance to Cute's then-latest single " Dance de Bakōn" was released on the group's official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel. The video received more than 100,000 views in two days, and had received over 1.2 million views by May 2011. Following the video's success, more solo "dance-cover" videos of Okai were uploaded, including her cover of

Aya Matsuura is a Japanese actress and pop singer, from Himeji, Hyogo, Japan. Career 2000–2009: Hello! Project Aya auditioned in 2000 for the fourth Morning Musume & Heike Michiyo Protegee Audition and was selected along with Sheki-Dol to become a part o ...

's song "

Love Namidairo is a song recorded by Japanese singer Aya Matsuura for her debut studio album, '' First Kiss''. It was released as the album's third single on September 5, 2001, through Zetima. Background Matsuura performed "Love Namidairo" on her first appearan ...

", which was released on

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

on November 27 as Okai's first digital single. Her first solo live event, "Chisato Okai (Cute) Solo Live 2011 Vol.1: Kaisha de Odotte Mita!!" was held on January 25, 2011, at Pacific Heaven. A CD containing Okai's cover of

Miki Fujimoto (born February 26, 1985), professionally known by her birth name of , and nicknamed Mikitty, is a Japanese actress and former pop singer. After failing the audition to join girl group Morning Musume with the fourth generation members, Fujimoto d ...

's " Romantic Ukare Mode", with "Love Namidairo" as the coupling track, was sold exclusively at the venue of her second solo live, but was also released digitally as part of Hello! Project's '' Hello Cover'' series. In August 2016, Cute announced plans to disband in June 2017. Okai expressed interest in becoming a television personality on variety shows following disbandment. She retired from the entertainment world on April 30, 2020.

Personal life

Okia announced in April 2019 that she would be taking time off from all entertainment activities. She noted that she had been in entertainment for 17 years, and sought to experience life from outside of the industry. Okai's sister, Asuna Okai, was a member of

Hello Pro Egg (formerly known as until January 2012) is a pre-debut training group established by Japanese entertainment agency Up-Front Group is a Japanese holding company for various entertainment companies. Its subsidiaries include the talent agenc ...

Discography

Singles

Digital albums

* ''Okai Chisato Solo Collection Vol. 2'' (2012)

Other solo songs

* (February 2, 2012) * (

cover) (April 18, 2012) * (April 18, 2013)

Appearances

Movies

* (December 14, 2002) * (June 5, 2004) * (December 17, 2011) as Kaori Maruoka * (2011)

TV series

* (2011) as Mai * (2012)

TV shows

* (2002–2007) * (2007–2008) * (2008) * (2008–2009) * (2010–2011) * (2011–2012) * (2012–2013) * (2013–?)

Other

* 54th NHK

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 ...

— backing dancer for

(December 31, 2003)

Theatrical plays

* (November 27 — December 28, 2004) * (March 17–22, 2011) * (2012) * (2012) * (2013) as Mei Koyamada

Solo events

* (January 25–26, 2011) * (February 13–14, 2011)

YouTube

* " Dance de Bakōn!

* " Ōkina Ai de Motenashite

* " Forever Love (Cute song), Forever Love

* " Massara Blue Jeans

* "

* " Yume Miru 15

Photobooks

Digital photobooks

* (October 5, 2010) * ''Cutest'' (Chisa Version) (March 6, 2012) * (October 22, 2012)

Solo DVDs

References

External links

*
Cute official blog

Chisato Okai's official USTREAM channel

{{DEFAULTSORT:Okai, Chisato 1994 births Living people 21st-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese singers Cute (Japanese idol group) members Japanese female idols Japanese television personalities Musicians from Saitama Prefecture Tanpopo members