, known professionally as , is a Japanese actress, singer, model, and radio personality affiliated with Foster. After learning chorus and dance and starting her career as a child actor, she was captain of the dance club, and after they came to national media attention after their appearance at the 2017 , was scouted by Foster and was the Century 21 Girl. She also starred as Mei Ayazuki in ''

Meiji Tokyo Renka is a Japanese visual novel series produced by Mages, with character design and art provided by Karu. The series follows Mei Ayazuki, a high school girl who is sent back in time to the Meiji period and explores her relationships with sp ...

'' (2019), the titular Iinchou in (2020), Honoka Ōba on '' Sumo Do, Sumo Don't'' (2022), and Sakura Uchida in (2023). In 2019, she released "Wingbeats", a single produced by

Shinichi Osawa , also known by his stage name Mondo Grosso, is a Japanese musician, DJ, record producer and composer. Over the course of his career, he has worked in genres ranging from acid jazz to house, with strong influences of underground club music, th ...

, and was a guest vocalist for "Love Dramatic", the theme song for the anime '' Kaguya-sama: Love Is War''.

Biography

Saya Hayashi, a native of

Ōsakasayama 260px, Sayama Pond is a city in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 58,465 in 26128 households and a population density of 4900 persons per km2. The total area of the city is . Geography Ōsakasayama is located i ...

, born on 2 June 1999. She started learning ballet at the age of four and, through it, learned the joy of expressing herself with her body. She became interested in musicals after seeing a play performed by a friend of her friend's while as a elementary school second grader, and from 2008 to 2012 she took chorus and dance lessons at . She joined Gekidan ARCS in 2013 and played Jojo's sister in their musical production ''Zubon Senchō: Fifi and the Seven Seas''. In April 2015, she enrolled in the general course and was a member of the school's dance club, which is coached by choreographer ; as captain, she won numerous competitions, and in August 2017, she was part of the center when the team performed at the and came to national media attention. She initially considered going to a university in Tokyo and auditioning, before being scouted by talent agency Foster prior to her graduation. On 1 October 2017, she began her entertainment career under the stage name Rikka Ihara. After auditioning in February 2018, she was appointed as the Century 21 Girl, the new image character of

Century 21 Real Estate Century 21 Real Estate LLC is an American real estate agent franchise company founded in 1971. The system consists of approximately 14,000 independently owned and operated franchised broker offices in 86 countries and territories worldwide with ...

's Japan division, and she began appearing in their commercials in July. After graduating from high school in March 2018, she moved to Tokyo and began working as an actress. She made her runway debut on 31 March when she appeared on the 26th

Tokyo Girls Collection The , sometimes abbreviated as TGC, is a semiannual fashion festival launched in 2005. It is mainly held near Tokyo area and some local cities such as Kitakyushu, Nagoya and Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa. The fashion event showcases the seasons fas ...

. Her first radio show ''Century 21 presents Rikka Ihara and Bukatsu Dance'', airing on

TBS Radio TBS Radio, Inc. () is a radio station in Tokyo, Japan, the flagship radio station of the Japan Radio Network (JRN). The company was founded by the Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS, presently named TBS Holdings, Inc.) on March 21, 2000. TBS Radio ...

, began broadcasting in April. In June, her first photo book was released. In January 2019, she made her debut as a singer with her single "Wingbeats", produced by

as the commercial song for Century 21. Although she had always liked singing, it was her first time singing in front of people, so she attended voice training in preparation for her debut as a singer. She was also a guest vocalist for

Masayuki Suzuki Masayuki Suzuki (鈴木雅之, ''Suzuki Masayuki'', born September 22, 1956, in Ōta, Tokyo) is a Japanese singer best known as a former member of pop group Rats & Star (previously called ''Chanels''), and for performing the opening themes for ...

's single "Love Dramatic", the theme song for the anime '' Kaguya-sama: Love Is War''. In April 2019, she began serving as the 16th MC of

Daiichi Kosho is a Japanese electronics and aircraft manufacturer that was founded in 1973 and is headquartered in Tokyo. As an electronics manufacturer the company specializes in karaoke equipment. History Between about 1992 and 2003 the company branched in ...

's online music programme . She made her drama debut as Fumi Aso in , which started airing in July 2018. In September 2018, it was announced that she would star as Mei Ayazuki in the 2019 live-action film adaptation of ''

''; this was the first time she starred in a television series or film. She made 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 Ta ...

'' debut in ''

Natsuzora is a Japanese television drama series and the 100th Memorial Asadora series, following ''Manpuku''. It premiered on April 1, 2019, and concluded on September 28, 2019. The story is loosely based on the life of animator Reiko Okuyama. Plot As N ...

'' (2019), appearing as Momoyo Morita. She was scheduled to make her stage debut as Maria at the IHI Stage Around Tokyo production of ''

West Side Story ''West Side Story'' is a Musical theatre, musical conceived by Jerome Robbins with music by Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, and a Book (musical theatre), book by Arthur Laurents. Inspired by William Shakespeare's play ''Romeo an ...

Season 3'', but it was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Japan The COVID-19 pandemic in Japan has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths, along with 33,728,878 recoveries. Government of Japan, The Japanese government confirmed the country's first case of the disease on 16 January 2020 in a ...

. She also starred as the titular Iinchou in the 2020 drama adaptation of , Honoka Ōba on the

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly referred to as simply Disney, is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Di ...

series '' Sumo Do, Sumo Don't'' (2022), and Sakura Uchida in the 2023 film . In 2024, she will star as Yūka Kitayama in the drama adaptation of .

Personal life

Among her hobbies are raising lizards (the

leopard gecko The leopard gecko or common leopard gecko (''Eublepharis macularius'') is a ground-dwelling gecko native to the rocky dry grassland and desert regions of Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Nepal. The leopard gecko is a popular pet, and due ...

) and . Her favorite work is the novella ''

The Little Prince ''The Little Prince'' (, ) is a novella written and illustrated by French writer and aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. It was first published in English and French in the United States by Reynal & Hitchcock in April 1943 and was published po ...

''.

Filmography

Anime

Live-action television

Film

Discography

Singles

As lead artist

As featured artist

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ihara, Rikka 1999 births Living people Japanese child actresses Japanese film actresses Japanese stage actresses Japanese television actresses 21st-century Japanese actresses 21st-century Japanese singers 21st-century Japanese women singers Japanese women pop singers Japanese radio presenters Japanese women radio presenters Japanese dancers Japanese female dancers Anime singers Avex Group artists People from Ōsakasayama, Osaka Actresses from Osaka Prefecture Singers from Osaka Prefecture