Ai Otsuka

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Ai Otsuka was born in September of 1982 in Osaka, Japan. Before becoming a singer, Otsuka became qualified to teach Kindergarten, and has stated that, should her singing career end, she will become a Kindergarten teacher. She was signed by Avex Trax in 2003 and shortly thereafter released her first single, Momo no hanabira. Her first song didn’t go very high on the charts, peaking out at 24, but her next single, Sakuranbo, managed to become the 12th best selling single of the year. It stayed on the Japanese charts for almost two years. A few months later she released Amaenbo, which was used as the background music for Sato Healthcare’s product called Stona Rhini S. This cold relief tablet helped to bring the song up to the number six spot on the charts. As the year went on, she managed to build a strong base of followers.

The next year, 2005, she continued to build fans through releasing songs on the airwaves and as parts of soundtracks. Planetarium was released in late 2005 and was the theme song for a television drama known as hana Yori Dango. In 2006 she became an actress, playing the role of the lead character in Tokyo Friends: The Movie. She also sang the theme song for the movie which became very popular and debuted at number five on the charts. Otsuka has continued to tour and create DVD’s of her music as well as CD’s. As a side note, Otsuka’s first name, Ai, sounds very much like the American “I”, and she plays on that quite often in her music. Ai is also Japanese for love, which is why most of her albums have “love” in the title.