Nozomi Sasaki

Nozomi Sasaki (佐々木 希), previously known simply as Nozomi during her fashion modeling career, is a Japanese actress, glamour model, and former professional fashion model.

After further intentionally gaining weight, she began appearing as a glamour model (gravure idol) on the youth-targeted weekly manga magazine Young Jump in 2005, and in the Pinky fashion magazine in 2006.

She first appeared on the cover of Pinky in July 2007, along with another cover girl, Emi Suzuki.

One theory suggests that Suzuki was the person who brought Sasaki to the commercial modeling field after she discovered Sasaki when Sasaki was planning to retire from modeling, and it has been noted that Sasaki already appeared at the time to be significantly chubbier than she used to be.

She was the model of Japanese magazine, "PINKY", "non-no", "Oggi"; currently, she is the model of "with".

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She made her first landing on the top cover of Young Jump in May 2007.

Since late 2008 she has released eight photobooks and three DVDs, and has also made countless appearances on television, magazines, and ads unrelated to fashion / cosmetic, including ones for Coca-Cola's green tea products, Suntory's 3 soft drink products, So-net, Willcom, Fujifilm, Kao, Rohto Pharmaceutical Co. and Seiko's Tisse brand line created for and dedicated to her.

Nozomi Sasaki released her first photobook, Nozomi, in August 2008, and her first DVD, Weekly Young Jump Premium DVD: nozomi, in September 2009.

After working as a fashion model for nearly 7 years, she has become famous as a gravure idol and main ringside commentator / spokesperson for the mixed martial arts competition Dream Fighting Championships and the kickboxing competition K-1 World Max since 2009.

She released her second DVD, Dolly, and two photobooks, Sasaki Nozomi in Tenshi no Koi and Non, in 2009.

She has regularly appeared on over 10 television programs and over 20 television commercials since 2009.

Her first huge hit on the TV scene was a TV commercial for Lotte's new chewing gum product Fit's, where she performed a "silly dance" called the Fit's dance.

Fit's became a smash hit, selling over 40 million in its first 5 months in the Japanese gum market where 4 million-per-year is considered large success.

In March 2009, she was chosen as the image character for a special advertising campaign by the Japan Magazine Publishers Association, a governmental publishing trade association run by the Ministry of Education.

During the campaign between July 21, 2009 – August 20, 2009, her portrait appeared in 300 different magazines and as 30,000 posters for bookstores and public libraries all over Japan, 100,000 posters hung in trains in the Tokyo metropolitan area and the Kansai area, and 2,009 prepaid cards.

Having made a cameo appearance in the romantic comedy Handsome Suit as well as minor roles in two television serials, Sasaki scored a major breakthrough in her budding acting career with the lead role in the 2009 sentimental romance film Tenshi no Koi, where she played a teenage girl in a fragile relationship with an older man played by Shosuke Tanihara.

The film became an instant hit and was also distributed in some nearby countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore.

She has also endorsed an accessory brand, Cotton Cloud, since June 2010 when it was created for her and its first flag shop opened in Harajuku.

In 2010, she started her music career, debuting with the single "Kamu to Funyan" (噛むとフニャン) which featured rapper Astro and was used in the tie-in commercials for Lotte Fit's Chewing Gum.

In early 2010 she was specially featured by 2.4 million selling manga series Usogui on Young Jump, and released her fourth photobook Prism.

Despite her breast size which has been known as one of the smallest in the gravure scene, she became a successful model by the end of 2010 in the field where breast size is regarded as a vital factor.

At that time she also began appearing on the Non-no magazine, a biweekly girl-next-door-orientated fashion magazine that does not usually feature people like her.

Though after becoming more of a gravure idol than a professional model, Sasaki was heavily featured in a spring fashion collection presented by the magazine and BS-TBS, and soon after that, she landed on the top cover of the magazine.

These appearances have been described as like an "invasion", as she has significantly changed the magazine's tone.

Some critics have suggested that the magazine has been destroyed by Nozomi Sasaki.

In 2010, she acted in the television drama Dohyo Girl where she played a model who became the coach of a high school sumo team.

This was the first time in her acting career that she took the lead role in a television drama series.

She also made her singing debut in July 2010 with the catch phrase "Heta de Gomenne!"

("Forgive my bad singing!") when she released a single, ''Kamu to Funyan feat.

Astro'', which debuted at number one on the Oricon singles chart.

At the end of 2010 she released her second single titled Jin Jin Jingle Bell, a cover version of Chisato Moritaka's 1995 hit.

She was expected to participate in the NHK Kohaku show, an annual New Year's Eve musical TV show, but when she was asked about it by the press during the commemoration event for Jin Jin Jingle Bell, she stated that she did not wish to appear on it.

She stated that she could not sing and was shy, implying she would never perform her songs live in public.

As a result, she did not attend the show.

Immediately following the firing of the predecessor, Akina Minami, she was picked as the ringside commentator for K-1.

Sasaki's debut album Nozomi Collection was released on April 18, 2012.

Sasaki began modeling at the age of around 14.

She modeled mainly in the collection circuit, and for fashion / cosmetic advertisements.

In the later years of her modeling career, she was a featured model and contributor to the now defunct Pinky magazine.