<figure id="attachment_399495" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399495" style="width: 2007px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="a2f18adc"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/6db9ed463dff3b949c604f75c885b955.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399495" class="wp-caption-text">Ai Kato showing off her beautiful legs at a new shoe launch event (September 17, &#8217;10 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<h2> As Ryoko Hirosue&#8217;s successor</h2>
<p> Ai Kato (41) made her first public appearance in eight years.</p>
<p> Kato attended the fashion brand MaxMara&#8217;s hands-on exhibition &#8220;MaxMara Jacket Circle &#8211; For Shining Women&#8221; in Tokyo. She was dressed in all-white and charmed the press with her stunning style and presence, showing no sign of the eight-year gap between her and the rest of the cast.</p>
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<p><span class="strongInContent"> Kato made her acting debut in 1997 at the age of 14 in &#8220;Gift,&#8221; a drama starring Takuya Kimura (51). The following year, she was selected as a Nichitelegenic and was cast in the NTT Docomo pager commercial as the replacement for Ryoko Hirosue (44). With her adorable smile, she is known as a &#8220;beautiful girl talent.</span><span class="strongInContent"> Her popularity skyrocketed as a &#8220;beautiful girl talent&#8221; with an adorable smile. Since then, she has been the image character of NTT Docomo for 8 years. Around 2000, she appeared in commercials for more than 10 companies, making her the &#8220;Queen of Commercials.</span></p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> She played cool roles in the &#8220;Umizaru&#8221; (Fuji TV series) and &#8220;Team Batista&#8221; (Fuji TV series) series, and was a clunky office worker in &#8220;Haken no Hinkaku&#8221; (Nippon TV series), and her wide range of acting roles made her a major supporting player.</span></p>
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<p> FRIDAY&#8221; has paid attention to Kato since 1999, when she gained popularity as a beautiful girl talent and became a radio DJ for the first time at the age of 16. The magazine has reported various images of Kato, including her best smile in front of 1,800 fans at a handshake event for her first photo essay, and the expression on her face at an event for a photo book published to commemorate her twentieth birthday. Among them, particularly memorable was the 27-year-old Kato&#8217;s glamorous appearance in a miniskirt at the launch of an original pair of shoes for &#8220;UNIQLO. Let us look back at the article we reported in the September 17, 2010 issue.</p>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Ai Kato in her &quot;beautiful girl talent&quot; days"></div>
<h2>Praised for her &#8220;priceless enameled legs</h2>
<p> On August 31, 2010, Ai Kato appeared in a miniskirt and showed off her beautiful legs. On that day, UNIQLO held a presentation of its new autumn line of original shoes, and Kato, the first image character of &#8220;Candish,&#8221; appeared wearing a pair of enamel pumps. She wore a mini-skirt to show off her shoes, but the press was drawn to her beautiful legs. At the time, Kato was 27 years old and single. When asked, &#8220;Are you married?　Kato replied, &#8220;I&#8217;m not thinking about it at all now,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> I&#8217;m not thinking about it at all right now, but I hope I can get married someday.</span></p>
<p> He was able to lightly dismiss the question as &#8220;I&#8217;m not thinking about it at the moment, but I hope to get married someday.</p>
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<p> Three years later, in 2001, Kato married a man seven years her senior, the president of a gravestone company, and after a long period of time devoted to raising her three children, she made her first appearance in eight years at a fashion event. When asked about the woman of her dreams, Kato replied, &#8220;A woman with a core and a strong sense of self,</p>
<p><span class="strongInContent"> Kato said, &#8220;I admire women who have a strong core, who have a strong sense of self, and who live a flexible life.</span></p>
<p> She said, &#8220;I really admire women who have a core, who have a strong sense of self and who live a flexible life. We look forward to Kato&#8217;s future activities, as she showed off her beauty that has not changed in the 20-plus years since she was a &#8220;beautiful girl&#8221; celebrity.</p>
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<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Ai Kato in her &quot;Bishojo Talent&quot; days"></div>
<figure id="attachment_399496" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399496" style="width: 2841px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="65ad7b85"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/3ae0b92919c9adb7b33812da54c7839f.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399496" class="wp-caption-text">Ai Kato, a 16-year-old radio DJ for the first time (&#8217;99/4/16 issue)</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_399498" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399498" style="width: 2988px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="94e1db11"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/39b16d8aeaf8855f1b6044a5ad2668a2-1.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399498" class="wp-caption-text"> 1,800 fans packed the event to celebrate the release of her first photo essay collection (May 21, &#8217;99 issue)</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_399499" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399499" style="width: 1943px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="66fceeb2"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/822bc07ee4619b3fcc3e278d26f68d82.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399499" class="wp-caption-text"> The publication event for her photo book &#8220;Nijusai&#8221; held on her 20th birthday (December 27, &#8217;02 issue)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_399500" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399500" style="width: 2521px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="73a6f943"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/a1635f486d56fb8305221bd6f5e2927d.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399500" class="wp-caption-text"> Ai Kato looking mature even though she just turned 20 (December 27, &#8217;02 issue)</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Images of her first two-shot date with a J-League player, etc."></div>
<figure id="attachment_399507" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399507" style="width: 850px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="f1de76e5"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/33a55a017742e8becc9b730e0c23114f.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399507" class="wp-caption-text">A date at night with Koji Nakata, a member of Japan&#8217;s national soccer team who was rumored to be in love with her at the time (July 13, &#8217;07 issue).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_399509" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399509" style="width: 1412px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="2c7f1a80"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/2d14c37fc8343204bb0f852ebb2aae65.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399509" class="wp-caption-text"> The two on a date in Ginza the day after the photo above (July 13, &#8217;07 issue).</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_399510" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399510" style="width: 1695px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="36d1f566"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/c4cafc1625373a91984c9ae94cfd94db.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399510" class="wp-caption-text"> Ai Kato&#8217;s aura cannot be hidden even if she hides her face with sunglasses (July 13, &#8217;07 issue)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_399512" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399512" style="width: 2473px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="8627efd9"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/c48279bd39f43b6167a3252833667756.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399512" class="wp-caption-text"> Team Batista 2: The Triumphant General Rouge&#8221; (Fuji Television Network) co-stars Takayuki Kinoshita (right), Junji Ito (center), and Ai Kato (left), of &#8220;TKO&#8221; fame, at an evening dinner (May 7, 2010 issue).</figcaption></figure>
<div data-friday-nextpage-lead=" Image of Ai Kato, who still looks young."></div>
<figure id="attachment_399513" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399513" style="width: 2007px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="5d800d51"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/d9fb645218b2c7595dde35ab8e137cfa.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399513" class="wp-caption-text">Ai Kato showing off her beautiful skin at a new shoe launch event (September 17, 2010 issue)</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_399515" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399515" style="width: 1952px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b21e0e30"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/1b64a10a438c52f9720ea55a1e51b637.jpg" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399515" class="wp-caption-text"> Ai Kato at a VIP-only sale of brand-name products (May 13 and 20, 2011 issue)</figcaption></figure>
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<figure id="attachment_399517" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399517" style="width: 1168px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="b8743c99"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/a64314f54fe181833a20c483fe62f63c.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399517" class="wp-caption-text"> Ai Kato in public for the first time in eight years (from her Instagram @ai_kato1212)</figcaption></figure>
<figure id="attachment_399518" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-399518" style="width: 1166px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="#" data-ident_hash="d9d7ffda"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/fridaydigital/image/private/t_article_image/wpmedia/2024/11/8698535f38d3f2e15e9eb7465b9b801e.png" alt=""></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-399518" class="wp-caption-text"> Even at 41 years old, she still retains her outstanding style and youthfulness (from her Instagram @ai_kato1212)</figcaption></figure>



 Kazuhiko Nakamura (1st, 10th), Takehiro Shigumura, Masaharu Uemoto (6th), Shoichiro Tsuboi (7th, 8th), Akifumi Yoshida, Kojiro Yamada

 Ai Kato appeared at an event for the first time in eight years, showing off her outstanding style with a youthfulness that belies her age of 41. FRIFAY" has been paying attention to her since she was 16 years old. Here is a collection of images from her "beautiful girl talent" days to the present.<br />


Ai Kato, appearing at a fashion event for the first time in 8 years&#8230; Images from her days as a &#8220;beautiful girl talent&#8221; replacing Ryoko Hirosue

Ai Kato, appearing at a fashion event for the first time in 8 years… Images from her days as a “beautiful girl talent” replacing Ryoko Hirosue

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