Yuriko Yoshitaka

Tokyo, Japan

Biography

Yuriko Yoshitaka is a Japanese actress who is represented by the Japanese agency Amuse. Yoshitaka made her acting debut in 2006. She was given the lead role in the live-action adaptation of Hitomi Kanehara's award-winning novel "Snakes and Earrings" in 2007. Portraying Lui, a teenager whose life goes into a downward spiral after meeting the forked-tongued and tattooed Ama, the role was Yoshitaka's breakthrough role. The Japanese public began to take notice of her, and in a poll conducted by Oricon, Yoshitaka was the fifth promising young actress of 2009 and 2009's freshest female celebrity. In 2010, Oricon again conducted a poll on the most promising actress and she managed climb up to top the poll. Yoshitaka began to receive more work in 2008 as she appeared in Flow's music video "Arigatō" (ありがとう, "Thanks"), was given her first lead role in the comedy drama Konno-san to Asobo (紺野さんと遊ぼう, Let’s Play with Konno-san) and took up the lead role in the film Yubae Shōjo (夕映え少女, A Girl in the Sunset) before the theatrical release of her other lead film Snakes and Earrings. In 2009, Yoshitaka was given the role of the suicidal Kairi Hayakawa in the romantic-comedy drama Love Shuffle. Later in the year, she portrayed Yūki Matsunaga (松永 由岐, Matsunaga Yūki) in the police drama "Tokyo Dogs" with Shun Oguri and Hiro Mizushima as her co-stars.

Movies

More than half of women in their 20's to 30's admit to "currently lacking a boyfriend." Men, love, sex, work, marriage... All the issues women face today are revealed in truth through this generation, an "ice age of love." "The reason I can't find my love" highlights the lives of three women, Fujii Emi, Ogura Saki and Hanzawa Mako. Emi works for a lighting company as a lighting technician, where she is surrounded by men due to the nature of the profession. She has a straight-forward and generous personality, but is unconcerned about general feminine interests such as fashion. She is often treated like another man by her boss and colleagues, and feels that being in love is tiresome. However, she cannot forget about her ex-boyfriend and hopes to someday fall truly in love. Saki is prideful and determined, but fails in landing a desirable job. As a result, she starts to work at a bar as a hostess, keeping the fact a secret from her parents. Mako is the youngest of all, having attended the same high school following Emi and Saki. She is earnest and responsible, but on the other hand, rather clumsy and afraid of taking chances on a romantic relationship. The three women end up living under the same roof by coincidence, and it is there that they share each other's experiences, bitter or sweet, desperately struggling with their love life. A life-sized unconventional love story ever to air on Fuji TV's prime 9 Monday drama slot! -- Fuji TV

More info
私が恋愛できない理由
2011