Mitsu Dan

Mitsu Dan was born on December 3, 1980, in Akita Prefecture, Japan.^[2] After graduating from Showa Women's University, she earned a teaching certificate, worked in a funeral parlor, tried but failed to start a sweets shop, and worked as a hostess in a Ginza club before becoming a gravure idol in 2010.^[3][4]

Dan became known for her role in the BDSM-themed erotic thriller movie Be My Slave (2012), a performance that Giovanni Fazio of The Japan Times summarized as "a starlet is born."^[5] The next year she played a lead role in the 2013 erotic thriller Amai Muchi (甘い鞭, Sweet Whip), which was directed by Takashi Ishii.^[6] At the 37th Japan Academy Prize ceremony Dan was recognized as a Newcomer of the Year for her performance in Amai Muchi.^[7]

Over the next few years Dan appeared in numerous television dramas, variety programs, movies, and advertising campaigns, including the kaiju parody Chikyû bôei mibôjin (地球防衛未亡人, Earth Defense Widow),^[8] the 90th NHK asadora Hanako to Anne,^[9] a 2015 recruiting commercial for the Japan Self-Defense Forces,^[10] the 2016 Hulu Japan drama Crow's Blood,^[11] and the 2017 film Sekigahara.^[12] In 2018 Dan became a weekly host of the radio program Makoto Ōtake Golden Radio!^[13] The next year she appeared in the 99th NHK asadora Manpuku.^[14]

In July 2017 Dan starred in an official tourism promotion video for Miyagi Prefecture that was created using 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami reconstruction funds and published online.^[15] Female members of the Miyagi Prefectural Assembly, along with members of the public, claimed that the video was sexually suggestive and demanded that it be taken down.^[16] Miyagi governor Yoshihiro Murai initially defended the video on the grounds that it successfully brought attention to the prefecture, but after receiving hundreds of complaints in a month he ordered the video withdrawn.^[15] Later that year the Japanese Ministry of the Environment appointed Mitsu Dan as a public ambassador to promote home energy conservation.^[17]

Dan has written books in multiple genres, including the autobiographical book Mitsu no aji (蜜の味, A Taste of Honey), advice books Erosu no osahō (エロスのお作法, The Rules of Love) and Dōshiyō (どうしよう, What Should I Do?), and the food essay collection Tabetai no (たべたいの, I Want to Eat).^[4][18][19] She made her fiction debut in 2016 with a story in the Bungeishunjū literary magazine Ooru Yomimono (オール読物, All Reading).^[20] Since April 2017 she has written a monthly advice column for Otokemachi, an online publication of Yomiuri Shimbun.^[2] In March 2018 her story "Takumiharahara" (タクミハラハラ) was published in the literary magazine Bungakukai.^[21]

In a January 2013 interview with Shukan Post, Mitsu Dan confirmed her bisexuality, stating she had affections for a woman before her first relationship with a man and expressing ongoing attraction to both men and women.^[22][23]

Dan married manga artist Tōru Seino [ja] in November 2019.^[24]

• 2014: 37th Japan Academy Prize for Newcomer of the Year^[25]

• Mitsu no aji (蜜の味, A Taste of Honey), Shōgakukan, 2013, ISBN 9784093637350
• Erosu no osahō (エロスのお作法, The Rules of Love), Daiwashobō, 2013, ISBN 9784479771845
• Dōshiyō (どうしよう, What Should I Do?), Magajinhausu, 2016, ISBN 9784838728329
• Tabetai no (たべたいの, I Want to Eat), Shinchosha, 2017, ISBN 9784106107412