Fuka Koshiba

Fuka Koshiba was born on April 16, 1997 in Sakai, Osaka, Japan.^[1][2] In an interview with Sports Nippon, she stated that her mother chose her given name after being inspired by Chiharu Matsuyama's song "Ōzora to Daichi no Naka de," combining the kanji characters for "wind" and "flower" to form "Fuka."^[3]

Koshiba began taking gymnastics lessons in her early elementary years before turning to figure skating in the third grade.^[1] She trained and competed for several years, reaching the Japan Skating Federation's Grade 7 proficiency level^[4][5] and placing eighth at a Western Japan sectional event.^[6] She was also selected for a national training camp for promising young skaters (全国有望新人発掘合宿) organized by the Japan Skating Federation.^[4] In addition to singles skating, she competed in ice dancing and won the novice division at the 15th All-Japan Figure Skating Novice Championships (第15回全日本フィギュアスケートノービス選手権大会).^[1][7]

Her interest in the entertainment industry began after seeing Olympic skater Mao Asada appear in a television commercial. Motivated by this, she auditioned for the 2011 Aeon × Oscar Promotion Girls Audition, performing a skating-inspired dance routine, and won the Grand Prix award.^[1][6][8] Although she initially intended to continue skating, she later decided to focus on acting after realizing that balancing both activities would be difficult.^[1][5]

In 2012, she debuted in the drama Iki mo Dekinai Natsu.^[9]

In 2014, Koshiba played her first leading role in Kiki's Delivery Service.^[10] She was awarded the Best Newcomer Award at the 57th Blue Ribbon Awards and 24th Japanese Movie Critics Awards for her acting in this film.^[11][12]

In 2023, Koshiba portrayed the character of Ranna Akamatsu in the cooking drama Fermat's Cuisine, starring Fumiya Takahashi and Jun Shison, and based on the manga series by Yūgo Kobayashi [ja].^[13]

On December 27, 2024, she announced that she left Oscar Promotion at the end of the year, and transferred to Top Coat starting 2025.^[14]