Years active: 1995 - present (started around 16 years old; 29 years in the business)
Instagram follower count: 53k (as of November 2024)
About Hiroko Anzai
Hiroko Anzai (安西 ひろこ, Anzai Hiroko) (born February 9, 1979, in Kanagawa, Japan) is a Japanese actress, model and gravure idol, who has appeared in various magazines and photo albums.
Her first photo album was released in 1996 and titled Mystic.
Fuji TV selected Hiroko as its Visual Queen of 1998.
She has body measurements of 89-62-90 cm, and stands 1.57 m tall.
Life and career
After graduating from junior high school in Sagamihara, Kanagawa, Anzai moved to Tokyo to attend Tsurukawa High School. Since the school does not allow students to appear in television commercials, however she left Tsurukawa to attend North Toshima High School, where she completed her studies.
In 1996 Anzai made her show business debut as a gravure idol, despite being one year short of the Japanese age of majority. For this reason, she actually attended the coming of age ceremony twice, over the protest of several witnesses. Several years later she confessed to having lied about her age during an appearance on the Japanese television variety program Downtown DX. Host Masatoshi Hamada joked, "Just one (year) is ok, isn't it?" In fact the misrepresentation was considered to be a relatively minor offense, and in the end the confession caused relatively little uproar.
During the late 1990s Anzai published several photo collections and made frequent appearances on number of television variety shows, but in 1999 she made the switch from gravure idol to fashion model, appearing in teen magazines. Together with popular singer Ayumi Hamasaki, Anzai gained popularity among junior and senior high school students as a fashion leader. She made her music debut with a CD released by Avex Group in 2000, featuring appearances by Namie Amuro, MAX, and V6, and produced by Eurobeat producer Dave Rodgers. She has also appeared as an actress on television dramas.
Anzai's interests include judo and swimming. During junior high, she competed in the Kanagawa Prefecture judo tournament, where she finished in the top eight. She has been known to throw fellow guests over her shoulder during appearances on variety programs, and often speaks on talk shows about the rigor of her training during junior high school.
In November 2007 it was reported that Anzai's relationship with Kaname Kawabata of the band CHEMISTRY had ended. By that time, Anzai had largely retreated from show business, though she did serve as spokesperson for the foreign brands import shop Toko Pacific.
Anzai returned to show business in September 2008 when she appeared in the magazine Blenda Black. In the magazine, she described in detail both her work and her mental state during the previous seven years.
In March 2009 Anzai began writing a blog. In May of that year she appeared in the television program Jabekuri 007 (Nippon Television) after a long absence from the medium.
