Sayaka Yoshino

Born in Tokyo and raised in both Tokyo and Chiba, Yoshino as a child wondered how children appeared on TV programs, until she learnt that to be cast she would need to a talent agency / agent. Without her parents foreknowledge, she sent out applications (including a school yearbook photograph of herself) to agencies advertised in newspapers until one responded with a request to meet and interview in person. As a young girl not able to travel to the meeting alone, Yoshino informed her mother and was escorted to the agency interview of which she was later offered to join. Yoshino began her career in 1994 after being selected in a public audition by a talent agency that she applied herself. After gaining popularity as a model appearing in fashion magazines, winning reader polled contests, and being cast in spoken roles for television commercials, she was cast in the first feature film Maborosi by film director Koreeda Hirokazu.

At about the same time she began appearing as a guest actress on television drama's and started to take on more extended roles in other feature films. Yoshino was cast in character designer and director Keita Amemiya's fantasy - action film, Moon Over Tao and again in Koreeda's second feature film, After Life, of which garnered critical acclaim both in Japan and abroad.

Yoshino's growing popularity defined a new phenomenon, as a young multi-faceted idol, which the media coined "Chaidol" (combining the words "child" and "idol").