Kasumi Nakane

Kasumi Nakane (仲根かすみ) is a Japanese model, gravure idol, and actress born on 1982-04-03 in Higashiōsaka, Osaka and raised in Tokyo, Japan.

Her birth name was Kasumi Nakasone (仲宗根かすみ), and she formerly worked under the name Kasumi Ue (植可澄美).

She graduated from the private Horikoshi High School, the same school attended by talent such as Yoko Minamino, Yōko Oginome, Ai Katō, and Masumi Miyazaki.

In 1993, Nakane joined the Nezumikko Club, an all-girl idol group composed of Nakane, Natsu Itō, Kana Itō, Sato Higashi, Ami Yamazaki, Emiko Inoue, Juri Miyazawa, and Chiaki Nakajima.

The group was created to ride on the popularity of such groups as Onyanko Club.

The group released two albums, both in 1993.

In 1996, she began working as a gravure idol, gaining success due to having a larger bust for her age.

Nakane began appearing in 1999 in drama series, as well as in variety, sports, educational, and other television programs.

She helped launch a "morning wake-up call" service in 2002 by personally calling five customers selected at random as part of the service.

In 2004, she participated in a Yahoo! chat session to promote the release of her DVD box set Nakane Kasumi Memories Box "Merci!" in which over 6700 individuals participated by submitting over 3700 questions.

She is represented by the talent management firm Big Apple.

Media sources:

She married Japanese baseball player Tsuyoshi Wada on 2005-12-10.

She gave birth to their first daughter on September 13, 2006.

Nakane has been a spokesperson for MSN at the WPB Expo in Tokyo.