Miho Nakayama
Biography. History. Nakayama was born in Saku, Nagano, Japan. Following her mother's remarriage, her family moved to Koganei, Tokyo. There, Nakayama attended Koganei Municipal Junior High School. Idol career. After being discovered by a talent scout while shopping in Harajuku, she made her debut on 21 June 1985 with her single "C", as well as a starring role in the film "Be-Bop High School". Throughout her career as a singer and actress, Nakayama recorded 22 studio albums and scored eight No. 1 singles on Oricon's charts; two of them selling over a million copies each . She also starred in a Famicom Disk System dating sim made by Nintendo titled "Nakayama Miho no Tokimeki High School", in which she played a high school student trying to mask her true identity. Acting career. In 1995, director Shunji Iwai cast Nakayama in the starring dual roles of Hiroko Watanabe and Itsuki Fujii in the film "Love Letter". The film was a huge box-office success, and Nakayama won Best Actress awards for her role in the film at the 38th Blue Ribbon Awards, the 17th Yokohama Film Festival and the 18th Hochi Film Awards. Nakayama was nominated for  a Best Actress Japanese Academy Award in 1998 for her role in "Tokyo Biyori," and has appeared in a number of TV series including "Love Story" (2001). On 8 November 2021, Nakayama starred alongside King & Prince member Yuta Jinguji in the stage play at The Globe Tokyo. The play runs until December 5. Personal life. Nakayama's younger sister is Shinobu Nakayama, who is also an actress and former pop singer. She also has a younger brother named Tomoaki. Nakayama had been signed to the same Box Corporation and before debut, became friends with Yasuko Endō. Two years after Endō 's suicide, Nakayama performed song called "Long Distance Tengoku e" during concert tour 1988. As a homage to the title of Endō's cancelled debut single "In the Distance", it was held as a requiem for her. Nakayama wrote the lyrics and composed the song herself. The song title changed to "Long Distance To The Heaven", and it was included on the album "Mind Game", released July that year. She touched about this song in the 1991 essay collection "P.S. I Love You". Also in the 2009 collection "Nazenara Yasashii Machi ga Atta Kara", Endō is written about with name  excluded. Nakayama married musician Hitonari Tsuji in 2002 after an eight-month relationship and they both moved to Paris before she gave birth to their son a year later. They divorced in 2014, and Nakayama moved back to Japan, with Tsuji retaining custody of their son.