Shinobu Nakayama: “I was convinced that I was just ‘Miho’s younger sister’ and not really important.” Behind-the-scenes stories from her debut

I was really a rebellious teenager

“Even in a scene where I was just supposed to carry a dish to the table, the moment I took a step, he’d say, ‘No, that’s wrong!’ Director Kazuyoshi Yoshikawa, who was 91 at the time, would get incredibly angry at me every single time. He’d say, ‘Did you turn into an idiot while I wasn’t looking?’ (laughs).But as you get older, he gradually stops scolding you. I feel the love behind the director’s reprimands, and I approach filming with a fresh mindset every year.”

In the period drama series *Muyōan: The Hermit’s Training* (BS Asahi, airing September 22), now in its 10th installment, Shinobu Nakayama (53) plays O-Saki, the proprietress of the traditional restaurant frequented by the protagonist, Hanbei.Although she’s now a seasoned actress, she was terribly shy as a child and had absolutely no interest in the entertainment industry. She says she was the complete opposite of her older sister, Miho Nakayama, who is three years her senior.

“My sister loved singing and wanted to become a singer. Back in the day, there used to be so many music shows on Sunday evenings, right? My sister wanted to watch the music shows, but I wanted to watch anime. We’d argue about it, but I always lost, so we’d end up watching the music shows.”

Miho made her acting debut at age 14 in *Maido Osawagasemasu* (TBS) and immediately debuted as a singer as well. Watching her sister rise to become a top idol in the blink of an eye likely made the entertainment industry feel like a familiar part of her life.

“On the contrary, it actually felt more distant. By the time I woke up in the morning, my older sister had already left the house, and she wouldn’t come back until after I’d gone to sleep. I loved watching the shows she was on, but I felt like, ‘Because she entered the entertainment industry, my older sister has disappeared from our home.’”

Yet even Shinobu, who had no interest in the entertainment industry, would end up entering it. It happened at Narita Airport, where she had gone to see Miho off on a work trip overseas; there, she was approached by Director Keiichiro Yoshida (79), who was part of the staff at the time.

“I was eating ice cream at a café in the airport when he asked, ‘How old are you? What club are you in?’ At the time, I didn’t even know what a director was, so I thought, ‘Who is this guy?’ All I could say was, ‘I’m in middle school,’ and ‘I’m on the volleyball team.’”

Shinobu’s shyness showed through even then, but later, word of “Miho’s younger sister” spread throughout the industry, and an offer to appear in a drama came her way. Although she turned it down, saying, “Not until I’m in high school,” she says that from there, things naturally led to her entering the entertainment industry.

In 1988, when she was a high school freshman, she made her acting debut in the drama *Otoko daro!* (Fuji TV).

“Looking back now, I was given a really great role, but I didn’t enjoy it at all. I just couldn’t manage the acting—riding up on a bicycle, stopping abruptly, and calling out, ‘Big brother!’ Even when the media interviewed me and took photos, the more they told me to ‘smile,’ the more I felt like crying, thinking, ‘I don’t want to…’”

That same year, she made her singing debut with CBS Sony. Her career as an idol also began, but…

“I just went with the flow—they handed me the sheet music and said, ‘Here’s your debut song.’ I should have felt incredibly blessed, but at the time, I didn’t appreciate it at all. I mean, Kishin Shinoyama was the one shooting the CD cover! I didn’t even realize how amazing that was.

At events like the Hakata Dontaku Festival, I’d take turns singing with other girls my age, but everyone else had entered the entertainment industry with the dream of becoming an idol, right? I guess I must have seemed like I wasn’t very motivated compared to them. I couldn’t even get along with the other girls (laughs).

I was happy when fans cheered me on at concerts, but I really hated photo shoots. I used to think, “Why do I have to lie on the rocks in a swimsuit? It hurts, too.”

She describes her teenage self as “really cynical.”

“I was convinced that I was, after all, just Miho Nakayama’s younger sister—and not someone important. Even during interviews, when asked, ‘Who is your rival?’, I’d think, ‘They definitely want me to say my sister,’ so I never once mentioned her name. In that sense, I was a pretty unlikable kid.”

“Seventy percent of them are the culprits (laughs).”

Shinobu looks back on his teenage years as a time when he had low aspirations and did everything half-heartedly. The turning point came when, at age 19, he appeared in *Keiji Kizoku 3* (Nippon TV), starring Yutaka Mizutani (74).

“In the shows I’d been in up until then, even if I messed up a take, I wasn’t scolded that much.Maybe it’s because they thought of me as an ‘idol actress.’ But that drama was shot on film by the same crew as *Howl at the Sun!* (Nippon TV), and if I messed up a take, I’d get scolded—because film was so expensive. I’d even get yelled at, ‘I’ll deduct it from your paycheck!’

The directors were all intimidating, but looking back now, they actually spent quite a bit of time helping me, telling me, ‘Keep doing it until you get it right.’ After doing my best despite my limitations and finally getting it right—when they told me, ‘That was good’—even though four years had passed since my debut, I felt a sense of accomplishment for the first time. ‘This is fun! I want to keep doing this forever!’ That’s what I thought.”

By the time the drama ended, I was 20 years old. People around me tried to talk me out of it, saying I should keep singing and doing variety shows, but I decided to bet everything on acting. Then, the female manager who still works alongside me today reportedly underwent a “sudden transformation.”

“She suddenly became really strict. If I even came close to messing up a take, she’d come at me with such force, it felt like she was about to kick me… (laughs)”

Shinobu is also known for having appeared in countless two-hour dramas throughout her long career; it’s said she’s appeared in nearly 200 of them.

“The first time I was allowed to play the role of a murderer was in *Chiharu Saotome’s Tour Guide Report 2: The Aomori Hot Springs Tour Murder Case* (TBS), starring Yuko Natori (69).I played the fiancée of the heir to a prominent family. People who knew my past kept showing up to threaten me, and I was forced to commit murder. It was really interesting to film the intensely packed life of a woman over a period of 10 days to two weeks. Since then… I’ve played the criminal in about 70 percent of my roles (laughs).”

Until my early 20s, there was a time when I struggled to find my own sense of individuality.

“It was an era when Kyoko Koizumi (60)—even though she was an idol—would get a buzz cut, and people praised her for being unique. But I was just… ordinary. I was often told, ‘You have no personality’ or ‘You’re neither here nor there,’ and I used to let that get to me.

But when I appeared in Keiju Kobayashi’s *Detective Muta Case File 22: Kanmon Strait to Yokohama—A Mysterious Woman in a Series of Murders!* (TV Asahi), his manager—who is also his real younger sister—told me, ‘Being ordinary is the hardest thing of all.’Mr. Kobayashi is someone who’s found success playing ordinary people, isn’t he? I came to realize, “Oh, I see—I don’t have to force myself to be over-the-top; I just need to approach the role seriously and become that character.”

When it comes to two-hour dramas, a classic scene is the one at the end where the culprit is cornered on a sheer cliff overlooking the sea and confesses to the crime. In industry jargon, this is called “rasu-tachi.”

“We start preparing around 4 or 5 in the morning and shoot until sunset, but in the summer, no matter how hot it gets, there’s no shade—because it’s a cliff. In the winter, on the other hand, since it’s right by the ocean, the wind is strong and it’s freezing cold. But that really conveys the feeling of being cornered, so we end up thinking, ‘Yeah, a cliff is definitely the way to go for the “last stand”’ (laughs).”

From the October 2 & 9, 2026, combined issue of *FRIDAY*