is a Japanese singer, model, YouTuber and actress who is a former member 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 ...

Nogizaka46 is a Japanese female idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto, created as the of the group AKB48. They are the first group from the Sakamichi Series, which also includes sister groups Sakurazaka46 (formerly Keyakizaka46), Yoshimotozaka46, and ...

Career

After graduating from high school, Shiraishi attended music college as she desired to be a singer. Later on, one of her teachers persuaded her to audition for

. Shiraishi's singing career started when she was accepted as one of the first generation members of

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with it ...

's official rival group, Nogizaka46, on 21 August 2011. She was chosen as one of the members performing on the group's debut single "

Guruguru Curtain is the debut single by Japanese girl group Nogizaka46, released on February 22, 2012. It reached number two in the Oricon Weekly Chart and sold 136,309 copies in the first week. It reached number three on the Billboard Japan Hot 100. Release ...

" on 22 February 2012. When Nogizaka46 released their second single "

Oide Shampoo is the second single by Japanese girl group Nogizaka46, released on May 2, 2012. It reached number one in the Oricon Weekly Chart. It sold 156,000 copies. It reached number two on the Billboard Japan Hot 100. Release This single was released ...

", she was once again chosen to perform. Her career as a model started when she participated in

Girls Award , sometimes abbreviated as GA, is a semi-annual fashion and music event held at Yoyogi National Gymnasium 1st Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan. It is one of the biggest fashion events in Japan, with approximately 30,000 people attending each time. It is ...

2012 Autumn/Winter alongside former Nogizaka46 bandmate

Nanase Nishino is a Japanese actress, model, television host, and former member of Japanese idol girl group Nogizaka46. Her lead roles in TV and film have included Asahi Tōjima in ''Asahinagu'' and Ai Amano in '' Denei Shojo: Video Girl Ai 2018''. She co-host ...

. Shiraishi achieved further popularity when she appeared on the 1 January 2013 episode of ''

Count Down TV (also known as CDTV) is a Japanese late-night music television program, broadcast on TBS since 1993. The program is shown weekly, and features a Japanese music video hit chart countdown, live performances from musicians and music information. ...

'' and the 16 March 2013 episode of ''Uma Zuki!''. Shiraishi has been a permanent presenter on the latter since the 5 January 2013 episode and ''Bachi Bachi Elekiteru'' since the 16 April 2013 episode. She became the youngest model for women's fashion magazine ''Ray'', issued by Shufonotomo, since 23 March 2013. Shiraishi was chosen as the center position in Nogizaka46 for their sixth single "

Girl's Rule is the sixth single by the Japanese idol girl group Nogizaka46. It reached the number one slot on the Oricon Singles Chart. It also reached number one on the Billboard Japan Hot 100. It was the 13th best-selling single in Japan in 2013, wi ...

", released on 3 July 2013. She took over the center position from

Rina Ikoma Rina or RINA may refer to: __NOTOC__ People and fictional characters * Rina (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Kento Rina, Indian politician * Mahfuza Rahman Rina, Bangladeshi politician * Tongam Rina (born 1979), Indian journ ...

. On 17 December 2014, Shiraishi held an event for her first photo book, ''Seijun na Otona Shiraishi Mai''. Shiraishi is the first Nogizaka46 member to publish a solo photo book. "I'm happy to be the first one," she said. Her second photobook, ''Mai Style'', was published on January 23, 2015. It ranked fourth on the Oricon general book ranking and first in the photobook category selling 19,000 copies in the first week. In September 2016, Shiraishi played a supporting role in the film '' Ushijima the Loan Shark 3''. On 7 February 2017, her third solo photo book, ''Passport'', was published. It was reprinted twenty times, and the total printing volume exceeded 310,000 copies until June 2018. Moreover, in the first half of the year 2018, she made the highest number of appearances in television commercials among any other

tarento Television personalities in Japan, known as in Japanese, are celebrities who regularly appear in mass media in Japan, especially as panelists on variety shows. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, bankable stars in America were described as "tal ...

in Japan. Shiraishi was in charge of the center position for Nogizaka46's twentieth single "

Synchronicity Synchronicity (german: Synchronizität) is a concept first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl G. Jung "to describe circumstances that appear meaningfully related yet lack a causal connection." In contemporary research, synchronicity ...

" which was released on 25 April 2018. It sold 1,116,852 copies in the first week. On 9 January 2020, Shiraishi announced that she would graduate from Nogizaka46 after the release of their 25th single, "

Shiawase no Hogoshoku is the 25th single by Japanese idol group Nogizaka46. The single was released on 25 March 2020. The center position of the title track was held by Mai Shiraishi. This single was intended to be the last one that Shiraishi performs in before she ...

", with a farewell performance during the group's Tokyo Dome concert scheduled in May. On 28 April, she announced that this has been postponed due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. On 20 August, the performance date was rescheduled for 28 October and was a livestreamed event. In August, Shiraishi launched her YouTube channel, called "My Channel" (stylized in all lowercase and a homophone of her given name). As of August 2021, it has reached 1.35 million subscribers.

Discography

Singles with Nogizaka46

Albums with Nogizaka46

Other featured songs

Filmography

Television

Films

Commercials

Bibliography

Magazines

* ''Larme'',

Tokuma Shoten is a publisher in Japan, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. The company was established in 1954 by Yasuyoshi Tokuma in Minato, Tokyo. The company’s product portfolio includes music publishing, video game publishing, movies, anime, magazines, m ...

2012-, as an exclusive model since 2012 * ''Ray'', Shufunotomo 1988-, as an exclusive model since 2013

Photobooks

* ''Kikan Nogizaka vol.2 Shoka'' (Tokyo News Service, 12 June 2014), * ''Seijun na Otona Shiraishi Mai'' (

Gentosha is a Japanese publisher, headquartered in Shibuya, Tokyo. Gentosha publishes manga magazine ''Comic Birz'', Web comic magazines '' GENZO'', ''SPICA'', '' Comic MAGNA'', literary magazines '' Lynx'', ''papyrus'', as well as business magazine ''GOET ...

, 10 December 2014), * ''Mai Style'' (Shufunotomo, 23 January 2015), * ''Passport'' (

Kodansha is a Japanese privately-held publishing company headquartered in Bunkyō, Tokyo. Kodansha is the largest Japanese publishing company, and it produces the manga magazines ''Nakayoshi'', ''Afternoon'', ''Evening'', ''Weekly Shōnen Magazine'' an ...

, 7 February 2017),

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shiraishi, Mai Living people People from Gunma Prefecture Japanese female idols Japanese female models Japanese women singers Japanese women pop singers 21st-century Japanese actresses 1992 births Nogizaka46 members Japanese YouTubers Models from Gunma Prefecture