is a Japanese television personality, television presenter, and actress. She is a former member of the
girl groups
Keyakizaka46
, formerly , is a Japanese idol girl group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group was created on August 21, 2015, becoming Nogizaka46's first sister group under the Sakamichi Series. Following the resignation of group's center Yurina Hirate and ...
and
Hiragana Keyakizaka46
is a Japanese idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group was established as a subgroup of Keyakizaka46 named Hiragana Keyakizaka46 on November 30, 2015, and was renamed and spun off into its own group on February 11, 2019. The group's ...
and current chairperson of the
Tokyo Idol Festival
is an annual event featuring live performances from female solo idols and idol groups from all over Japan. The festival has been held since 2010.
In 2014, The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, ...
.
Nagahama joined Keyakizaka46 in 2015 as the founding member of its subgroup Hiragana Keyakizaka46, and was briefly the only member of that subgroup. She left Hiragana Keyakizaka46 in 2017 and Keyakizaka46 in 2019, and returned to the entertainment industry a year later as a television presenter and actress. She was appointed the Tokyo Idol Festival chairperson in 2021.
Early life
Nagahama was born in
Nagasaki
is the capital and the largest Cities of Japan, city of Nagasaki Prefecture on the island of Kyushu in Japan.
It became the sole Nanban trade, port used for trade with the Portuguese and Dutch during the 16th through 19th centuries. The Hi ...
,
Nagasaki Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Nagasaki Prefecture has a population of 1,314,078 (1 June 2020) and has a geographic area of 4,130 km2 (1,594 sq mi). Nagasaki Prefecture borders Saga Prefecture to the northeast.
N ...
. Between the ages of 3 to 7, she lived on
Nakadōri Island, a remote part of Nagasaki in the
Gotō Islands
The are Japanese islands in the East China Sea, off the western coast of Kyūshū. They are part of Nagasaki Prefecture.
Geography
There are 140 islands, including five main ones: , , , , and .
The group of islands runs approximately fr ...
.
During high school, Nagahama appeared as a participant in the All Japan High School Quiz Championship, a
game show
A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or demonstrative and are typically directed by a host, ...
for high school students. She advanced to the prefectural-level championships.
Career
Nagahama auditioned to be a part of
Keyakizaka46
, formerly , is a Japanese idol girl group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group was created on August 21, 2015, becoming Nogizaka46's first sister group under the Sakamichi Series. Following the resignation of group's center Yurina Hirate and ...
; however, despite impressing the judges, she withdrew before the final round of auditions due to her parents' opposition. Later, her parents changed their minds after attending a
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, a ...
concert in
Fukuoka
is the sixth-largest city in Japan, the second-largest port city after Yokohama, and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since anc ...
and allowed Nagahama to participate in the new group. With the support of the judges from the auditions, Nagahama officially joined Keyakizaka46 in November 2015 during the group's weekly
variety show
Variety show, also known as variety arts or variety entertainment, is entertainment made up of a variety of acts including musical performances, sketch comedy, magic, acrobatics, juggling, and ventriloquism. It is normally introduced by a comp ...
, ''
Keyakitte, Kakenai?
is a Japanese late night variety show starring Japanese idol group Keyakizaka46. It was hosted by Yū Sawabe and Teruyuki Tsuchida and aired every Sunday at 12:35 AM JST on TV Tokyo. After the group was rebranded into Sakurazaka46 in 2020, the ...
'' However, she was designated as the sole member of a subgroup named
Hiragana Keyakizaka46
is a Japanese idol group produced by Yasushi Akimoto. The group was established as a subgroup of Keyakizaka46 named Hiragana Keyakizaka46 on November 30, 2015, and was renamed and spun off into its own group on February 11, 2019. The group's ...
(けやき坂46, the exact same name but written in ''
kana
The term may refer to a number of syllabaries used to write Japanese phonological units, morae. Such syllabaries include (1) the original kana, or , which were Chinese characters (kanji) used phonetically to transcribe Japanese, the most p ...
''). Auditions for the subgroup began soon after.
Nagahama made her musical debut with Keyakizaka46's first single, "
Silent Majority
The silent majority is an unspecified large group of people in a country or group who do not express their opinions publicly. The term was popularized by U.S. President Richard Nixon in a televised address on November 3, 1969, in which he said, " ...
", though only appearing on a
B-side song, .
She made her first title song appearance in the second single, "
Sekai ni wa Ai Shika Nai
is the second single by the Japanese girl idol group Keyakizaka46. It was released in Japan on 10 August 2016 on the label Sony Records. The song was used as the theme song of their mystery and comedy drama that premiered on TV Tokyo on 16 J ...
", and also sang a solo song, .
Although eleven new members joined Hiragana Keyakizaka46 in May 2016, Nagahama was the only one to appear in songs by both the main group and subgroup. In consideration of both groups' increasing activities and the addition of nine second generation members to Hiragana Keyakizaka46 in August 2017, Nagahama left Hiragana Keyakizaka46 in September 2017 and became part of the main group full-time.
In December 2017,
Kodansha announced that they will be publishing a
photo-book
A photo book or photobook is a book in which photographs make a significant contribution to the overall content. A photo book is related to and also often used as a coffee table book.
Early
Early photo books are characterized by their use o ...
featuring Nagahama photographed on the
Gotō Islands
The are Japanese islands in the East China Sea, off the western coast of Kyūshū. They are part of Nagasaki Prefecture.
Geography
There are 140 islands, including five main ones: , , , , and .
The group of islands runs approximately fr ...
, her hometown. Nagahama was the first member of Keyakizaka46 to release such a book. The photo-book, titled , sold 98,000 copies in its opening week, a record only topped by
Mai Shiraishi
is a Japanese singer, model, YouTuber and actress who is a former member of the Japanese idol girl group Nogizaka46.
Career
After graduating from high school, Shiraishi attended music college as she desired to be a singer. Later on, one of he ...
's photo-book released earlier in the year.
Her photo-book was also awarded by
JR Kyushu
The , also referred to as , is one of the seven constituent companies of Japan Railways Group (JR Group). It operates intercity rail services within Kyushu, Japan and the JR Kyushu Jet Ferry Beetle hydrofoil service across the Tsushima St ...
for promoting tourism within
Kyushu. Nagahama was also given the title "tourism ambassador" by Nagasaki.
Nagahama has appeared in all singles up until "
Kuroi Hitsuji
is the 8th single from Japanese idol group Keyakizaka46. It was released on February 27, 2019, through Sony Music Entertainment Japan. The title track features Yurina Hirate as center.
The single was announced on January 14, 2019. The song was ...
", and was also included in crossover groups such as Sakamichi AKB (with Nogizaka46 and
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 ...
) and IZ4648 (with Nogizaka46, AKB48, and
Iz One
Iz*One ( ; ko, 아이즈원, Aijeuwon; ja, アイズワン, Aizuwan; stylized as IZ*ONE) was a South Korean–Japanese girl group formed through the Mnet reality competition show '' Produce 48''. The group was composed of twelve members: J ...
).
After the release of Kuroi Hitsuji in March 2019, Nagahama announced her resignation from the group, citing personal reasons. She officially left the group on 30 July 2019 with a farewell event at
Makuhari Messe
is a Japanese convention center outside Tokyo, located in the Mihama-ku ward of Chiba City, in the northwest corner of Chiba Prefecture. Designed by Fumihiko Maki, it is accessible by Tokyo's commuter rail system. ''Makuhari'' is the name of ...
.
On July 7, 2020, Nagahama returned to the entertainment industry and joined the regular cast of the documentary/variety show ', co-produced by
Kansai TV
JODX-DTV, virtual channel 8 ( UHF digital channel 17), branded as or , is the Kansai region key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and Fuji Network System (FNS), operated by the . Kansai TV is a company affiliated in Hankyu Hanshin Holdin ...
and
Fuji TV
JOCX-DTV (channel 8), branded as and colloquially known as CX, is a Japanese television station based in Odaiba, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Owned and operated by the it is the key station of the Fuji News Network (FNN) and the Fuji Network S ...
. She also launched her official website and
Twitter
Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...
account.
In July 2021, Nagahama was appointed the chairperson of the annual
Tokyo Idol Festival
is an annual event featuring live performances from female solo idols and idol groups from all over Japan. The festival has been held since 2010.
In 2014, The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, ...
, succeeding fellow former idol
Rino Sashihara
is a Japanese tarento, singer, producer and actress. She is best known as a former member of idol groups HKT48, AKB48 and STU48, and was the theater manager for HKT48 and STU48. She was also a member of AKB48's unit Not Yet and is the producer ...
.
Nagahama is the
Sustainable Development Goals PR ambassador for
NHK
, also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee.
NHK operates two terrestr ...
,
and also the host for the television network's
sign language
Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...
educational shorts, titled and started in February 2022.
She would make her ''
asadora
, colloquially known as , is a serialized, 15 minutes per episode, Japanese television drama program series broadcast in the mornings by Japanese public broadcaster NHK. The first such series aired in 1961 with the black-and-white , starring Take ...
'' debut in ''
Maiagare!
is a Japanese television drama series and the 107th Asadora series, following '' Chimudondon''. It premiered on October 3, 2022. Haruka Fukuhara was cast in the lead role of Mai Iwakura after an audition of 2545 women.
Plot
Cast
Iwaku ...
'' (2022) as Sakura Yamanaka, who is a Gotō Islands native like herself.
Discography
Keyakizaka46
Other appearances
Filmography
Drama series
Variety and talk shows
Bibliography
* (,
Kodansha, 2017)
References
External links
* (July 7, 2020– )
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nagahama, Neru
1998 births
Living people
Japanese idols
Keyakizaka46 members
Musicians from Nagasaki Prefecture