Legal name: Anna Shintaku
From the second year of primary school she knew that her body was male while her heart was female, but she kept it hidden and began performing in 2002 as the male singer KEITA. In 2003 she won the Best Newcomer Award at the 6th Shanghai Asia Music Festival. In 2007 the response to a song she sang on television led her to come out in 2009. In 2010, following gender-affirming surgery, she made a fresh start as Kate Asakura. From 2013 she also drew attention as a bridal model, and she remains active today. She is well known in the media as a cosplay singer performing as Hatsune Miku. In 2016 and 2017 she appeared as a guest at Cool & Kawaii Japan, hosted by the Japanese Embassy in Laos, and — coordinated by the embassy — gave talks and live performances at secondary schools and the national university in Laos as part of international exchange. She speaks frequently at government bodies, schools and companies.
She is the official idol of Shiga University of Medical Science and serves as a “Kenko Shiga Ambassador” for Shiga Prefecture.
She completed the film SUPER APARTMENT WIFE, which she directed, wrote and starred in for the first time. Taking this as her cue, she began working internationally as the actress Anna Nagasaki in 2021.
In July 2022 she appeared at a Spanish film festival as the leading actress of Holy Mother, directed by Yoshihiro Nishimura.

Anna Nagasaki official YouTube
Anna Nagasaki official site

She began playing the piano at the age of six and started serious vocal training in her third year of junior high school. While studying at the Faculty of Music of Soai Women’s University she was scouted and joined a talent agency, appearing on numerous stages — including a run of one year and ten months in Yoshimoto’s Pocket Musical. She went on to perform as a singing pianist before becoming an instructor at the Kansai Kayo Academy in 1986, teaching voice training and singing. In 2001 she became independent and founded Rainbow Music Ltd., where as representative director she develops artists, plans events, works as a voice trainer and serves as an audition judge, as well as volunteering at welfare facilities. Her work also spans public speaking, coordination for gender-affirming care, and training music-reminiscence care workers.
She is also the representative director of Rainbow Music Ltd.

Co-chair of the NPO Colorful Blankets; deputy director and veterinarian at Suminoe Koen Minami Tote Animal Hospital
Lesbian
She lives with her same-sex partner of ten years.

Born in Kyoto in 1979. She realised she was a lesbian in her final year of high school but spent years with no one to confide in. In 2015 she held a wedding ceremony with her current partner at Kansai Rainbow Festa, coming out publicly, and began working through the media and public talks to help people understand that LGBTQ+ people are part of their own communities. Her story has been covered in newspapers and on television, and she speaks at the invitation of civic groups, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, primary and secondary schools and universities. In 2018 she was the first person to use Osaka City’s partnership declaration certificate system. In 2019 she founded the NPO Colorful Blankets, building communities in which everyone — including LGBTQ+ people — can support one another, and acting as a voluntary guardian for those who cannot rely on their legal family.

Colorful Blankets

From October 2017, member of the Sumiyoshi Ward Administration Council, Osaka City.
She works with the ward government to make Sumiyoshi a place where sexual minorities and other socially vulnerable people can live well.
A woman born by mistake in a boy’s body — a transgender woman (not a cross-dresser or “new half”; simply an ordinary woman).

As a freelancer she carries out welfare work, including volunteering, centred on raising social awareness of LGBTQ+ people, including transgender people.

Hideto Sakurai

Born and raised in Osaka in 1979, spending only his four university years in Kyoto. From childhood he noticed that he felt romantic attraction to both men and women, but could not accept it himself until he was 22. At 24 he came out to a friend for the first time, and gradually came to accept himself. In 2012 he founded glitter — wedding for LGBT — and began advocacy work as Japan’s first LGBTQ+ bridal planner. In 2017 he raised one million yen through crowdfunding and incorporated the organisation as the general incorporated association glitter. He is now a professional bridal consultant certified by the Association of Bridal Consultants, serving as its LGBTQ+ bridal lead; a part-time teacher of geography, history and civics at an Osaka prefectural high school; and representative of “Glitter”, a child development support and after-school day service — while also speaking on LGBTQ+ issues across Japan. He has also served as co-representative and secretary-general of Rainbow Festa! Kansai Rainbow Parade, held each autumn.

Moved to Osaka at 20 to study composition and to find where their own gender would settle. After graduating they wrote music for many small theatre companies in Kansai, with works staged in Melbourne, Taipei and elsewhere. They have also played in backing bands for stage actors and supported other bands, and are equally at home composing and arranging from a hummed melody.
Torn over whether to start hormone therapy, they moved to the United States at 29 to build up their mental resilience. With a shaved head and geta sandals, they are regularly mistaken for a 15-year-old. Their dream is to retire gracefully with their partner. They currently work in composition, sound, production and design.