Nanako Matsushima (松嶋 菜々子, Matsushima Nanako, born 13 October 1973) is a Japanese actress and model. She is best known for starring in the horror film Ring (1998) and the drama series A Story of Love (1997) and I'm Mita, Your Housekeeper. (2011). The latter's final episode reached a viewer rating of 40%, making it one of the highest rated Japanese television dramas of all time.
Matsushima has been called one of Japan's most beautiful women.[1] She has won the Best Actress Award at the Japan Television Drama Academy Awards six times.[2] In 1997, she starred as a poor but happy designer who happens to run a shop in a building owned by a wealthy and arrogant but dying rich man in the drama A Story of Love (known as Konna Koi No Hanashi in Japanese). The drama chronicles the trial and tribulations that the leads undergo as their feelings developed into something more than mere friendship.[3]
In 1998, Matsushima co-starred with her now-husband Takashi Sorimachi in the drama Great Teacher Onizuka, about a former delinquent turned teacher. The drama, based on a manga, received a 35.7 rating for its final episode, making it one of the highest rated Japanese dramas in history.[citation needed] In November 2023, she co-starred alongside Sorimachi in a commercial for Shiseido.[4][5] The commercial marked the couple's first shared appearance since Great Teacher Onizuka and their first time together following their marriage in 2001.[5][4] In 2024 the couple appeared together in the remake of Great Teacher Onizuka, GTO Revival, where Matsushima guest starred, reprising her role as Azusa Fuyutsuki.[6][7]
In 1999, Matsushima appeared as the female lead in the drama Majo no Jōken (Terms for a Witch) which centres on the romance between a teacher and her student, with Hideaki Takizawa as the male lead. The show was awarded the best drama at the 21st Japan Television Drama Academy Awards.[8]
Matsushima played Tsubaki Domyouji, sister of the main male lead Domyouji Tsukasa, played by Jun Matsumoto, in the 2005 drama Boys Over Flowers and Boys Over Flowers 2. Both dramas were a rating success with the final episode of Boys Over Flowers 2 peaking at 27.6. She also starred alongside Matsumoto in 2012, in the comedy serial drama Lucky Seven, where she played his boss.[9] The third time they appeared together, Matsushima played Matsumoto's character Chikara Nakagoshi's neighbor, Yoriko Michio, in the 2022 drama My Neighbor, Chikara.[10] The two shared another stage in NHK's 2023 Taiga drama What Will You Do, Ieyasu?, with her playing the role of Odai no Kata, mother to Matsumoto's Ieyasu Tokugawa.[11]
Matsushima starred in the horror film Ring (1998), which has since become regarded as one of the greatest horror films of all time.[12] This marked her second collaboration with Hiroyuki Sanada, having previously worked together on the drama series A Story of Love.[13] She appeared in the film Whiteout (2000), which grossed over 4.2 billion yen in Japan and earned her a nomination for the Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role award at the 24th Japan Academy Film Prize.
In 2011, Matsushima starred in I'm Mita, Your Housekeeper. The show's final episode garnered a rating of 40%, making it one of the highest rated Japanese dramas of all time.[14] The show won several awards, including the Best Drama and Best Female Actress awards at the 71st Television Drama Academy Awards.[15]
In September 2021, Matsushima co-starred in a commercial for Uber Eats alongside Matt Kuwata.[16]
Personal life
Matsushima married actor Takashi Sorimachi on 21 February 2001. They have two daughters together, born on 31 May 2004 and 30 November 2007.
