Here are some of my favorite Japanese actresses.
You know I just noticed that most of these ladies have ties to Anime, Manga or Japanese monster movies....
Hmmm....

Keiko Kitagawa was born on August 22, 1986 in Hyōgo Prefecture and she grew up in Kobe, Japan.
You may have seen this Japanese actress and former model in 2006's The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, as Reiko.
When Keiko was little she wanted to be a doctor, but when she was discovered by a talent scout she wanted to become a model.
This bothered her parents who wanted her to stay with her studies, but they relented on two conditions.
One, she that she put her studies first and graduate from the university she was attending, and two that if she made no progress in modeling, that she give it up within a year.
Well she accomplished one, graduating from Meiji University in Tokyo with a degree in commercial science.
Two was really easy, because with a WEEK of joining a talent agency, she was picked as an actress and a model.
Her acting career began when she landed the role of Rei Hino (Sailor Mars) on the live action television series of the anime and manga, Sailor Moon.
Keiko has gone on to appearing in twelve films, four TV series, write three books and release a CD.

Komatsu Ayaka is a Japanese model and actress, born on July 23, 1986 in Ichinoseki, Iwate Prefecture, Japan.
She has done a lot of modeling, but she is probably the most famous for appearing in the Japanese magazine Sabra.
Sabra is the Japanese equivalent of Maxim, FHM, and Stuff magazines.
Ayaka has appeared in several Japanese TV shows, reality shows and commercials, but she is probably best known for also appearing in the live action Sailor Moon series as Minako Aino (Sailor Venus).
After Sailor Moon, Ayaka and Keiko appeared together in the Japanese TV drama Buzzer Beat.

Japanese actress and singer, Rie Miyazawa, was born on April 6, 1973 in Tokyo Japan.
And believe it or not, she did not appear in the live action Sailor Moon series!
Rie made her acting debut in a Kit Kat commercial at the age of eleven.
Everything seemed to be going well for Rei (films, television shows, commercials, stage appearances, photo books etc) until 1991, when she took a Britney Spears type spiral and didn't really pull out of it till 1997.
But she came back, and in 2001, she won the Best Actress Award at the Moscow International Film Festival.
This lead to a string of critically acclaimed roles, and Rie got her life back on track.
In May of this year, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
Rie has done over 20 movies so far in her career.

Yukie Nakama was born on October 30, 1979 in Urasoe, Okinawa, Japan.
Yukie started out as a teeny bopper in 1996, but has risen up and become a popular and well-respected actress.
She started her real climb to fame in the 2000 Japanese TV comedy Trick, which ran for three seasons and produced two spin off movies.
Then came the top-rated Japanese TV series Gokusen (2002), a live-action version of the popular manga of the same name.
Her role as Kumiko Yamaguchi really put her over the top and established her as a star.
Of course her commercials haven't hurt any, with Yukie doing ads for Nissin Chicken Ramen, Japan Railways, Lotte Xylitol, Asahi and Shiseido that appear almost everywhere in Japan.
Yukie is a very prolific performer, having done over thirty TV shows and fifteen movies including Ring 0: Birthday, the prequel to Ring.

Masami Nagasawa was born on June 3, 1987 in Iwata, Shizuoka.
What's so cool about Masami?
She has appeared in not one...but two Godzilla movies!
Yes, this beautiful Japanese actress works for Toho Entertainment and appeared in Godzilla: Tokyo SOS (2003) and Godzilla: Final Wars (2004).
She is the daughter of Kazuaki Nagasawa, the former manager of the J. League (Japanese professional association football league) team Júbilo Iwata and she graduated from Horikoshi High School, the same high school attended by other Japanese stars Ayumi Hamasaki, Ayase Haruka, Aya Ueto, Jun Matsumoto, Tomohisa Yamashita and Tanaka Koki.
Masami has appeared in twenty three TV dramas and eighteen movies (including the two Godzilla movies).
She's so popular with Toho Entertainment, that she was the cover girl for Toho Calendar in 220,226 and 2007.

Japanese model and actress, Koyuki was born on December 18, 1976, in Zama, Kanagawa-ken, Japan.
Koyuki started her modeling career in 1995 and hasn't looked back, appearing in over 17 Japanese dramas, TV and magazine ad campaigns and films.
She frequently appears in Japanese print and television marketing campaigns for Panasonic.
Koyuki has appeared in ten movies, but you may remember her from The Last Samurai as Taka, the wife of a Samurai slain by the character Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise).
Recently she appeared in Blood: The Last Vampire based on the Japanese anime of the same name.
The movie is about a 400-year-old half human-half vampire girl named Saya (played by Gianna Jun) who hunts vampires in partnership with humans and seeks to destroy Onigen (played by Koyuki), the most powerful of vampires.