Sakura Andō

With both parents in show business, perhaps it isn't surprising that Sakura Andō would become an actress and also end up marrying an actor. She was born to actor/director Eiji Okuda and celebrity Kazu Andō. Her great-grandfather was prime minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. Her older sister is director Momoko Andō. She saw her father on stage at age five and decided to become an actress while in second grade. She was often ill as a child. Her disease made her dizzy, lose her balance and more throughout her childhood. Her brain would shut down. She would opt for her mother's maiden surname for her professional career. Sion Sono picked her for his film Love Exposure and gave her a major start on the big screen. She won an award as the Best Supporting Actress for her work in it at the 31st Yokohama Film Festival. Earlier her father cast her in his film Kaze No Sotogawa (Outside the Wind) alongside her mother and sister. She has since appeared in multiple movies and serials and won several more awards. She married actor Tasuku Emoto in 2012. She had met him on a train in 2008 and got her father's permission to date and marry him. She was a boxer in the film 100 Yen Love, which was fortunate since she had practiced boxing when she was fourteen years old. She gave birth to her first child, a girl, in 2017. She won the award for Best Actress at the 42nd Japan Academy Prize for her work on 2018's Shoplifters. By then she was considered one of the top young actresses in Japan next to Yū Aoi, Aoi Miyazaki and perhaps Kumiko Asō. Interestingly, she had earlier decided to retire and focus on raising her child. She is a graduate of Gakushuin Women's College.