From Former “Country Musume” Member Miu Saito to In-Room Massage Therapist, Minato Ward Office Employee, and Finally, a Relationship Specialist

“When I heard it was an interview for FRIDAY, I thought, ‘Wait, could this be about that?’ and my heart skipped a beat. Well, there are actually quite a few things that come to mind! (laughs)”

Speaking with a laugh is Miu Saito (39), a former member of “Country Musume.”Having shared the stage with Miki Fujimoto (41) and Asami Konno (39), she transitioned from being an idol to working as an esthetician before becoming a romance columnist. She currently runs an online community for women.

Why did an idol from an era when it was difficult to speak openly about romance end up making “romance” her career? We asked her about her unexpected career path from her “Country Musume” days through her post-graduation years, right up to the present.

“Ikokudo” at the Hello! Project Audition

“When I was in elementary school, I watched Namie Amuro (49) and ‘SPEED’ on *THE Yoru mo Hippare* (Nippon TV), and I thought they were so cool—I really looked up to them. I also bought the idol magazine *Myojo* every month and would listen to the songs while looking at the lyric sheets that came as supplements.

Back then, great songs were released almost every week, and finding classic tracks was my hobby. My favorite was Hiroko Shimabukuro (42) from ‘SPEED.’ I also liked songs by aiko (50) and Ringo Sheena (47).”

Saito loved music and dreamed of becoming a singer. When she was 15, she applied for the 6th-generation auditions for “Morning Musume.”

“I think the competition to join ‘Hello! Project’ was so fierce that I even wondered if it might be harder than getting into the University of Tokyo. So when I passed, I thought, ‘Now I don’t have to go to school anymore—my future’s all set early’ (laughs).I’m the eldest daughter, and my parents were strict, so I was pretty good at studying, but even they told me, ‘You don’t have to study anymore.’”

For the audition, I sent in a video of myself singing “Do it! Now” by “Morning Musume,” which was the required song. However, there was a slight “problem” with that video.

“I decided to audition at the very last minute, so I hurriedly memorized the song… and recorded myself by overwriting the video of my younger brother’s kindergarten graduation ceremony that was already on my camera. After I finished singing, the footage of my brother’s graduation ceremony just kept playing on and on (laughs). It’s seriously ridiculous, isn’t it? I never thought I’d actually pass.

Then, after I debuted, that very video was actually aired on TV. I thought, ‘Ah, I should’ve just recorded a new one!’”

In the “Morning Musume” audition, she placed third in the public vote and made it to the final group of about 30, but ultimately didn’t make the cut. Three months later, she learned that an audition for new members of “Country Musume” was being held, so she decided to try again.

Here’s how she explains why she was chosen:

“At the time, Ikokudo was all the rage, and I used to do their impersonations a lot at school. I performed that during my self-introduction at the audition. I’d actually underestimated the audition itself, so I was actually pretty relaxed. I talked nonstop during my self-introduction—so much so that the judges had to cut me off, saying, ‘That’s enough’ (laughs).Maybe I got in more for my personality than for my singing or dancing.”

But once I actually joined, that sense of ease vanished. “AKB48 has a trainee period, right? But Country Musume doesn’t have that—they expect you to be ready to perform right from the start. I’d taken dance lessons back home, but up until then, it was just a hobby. Dancing might look easy, but in reality, the feedback on what to fix was incredibly detailed.

On top of that, we had to do all kinds of work—live shows, handshake events, plays, TV… We were expected to deliver high quality at an incredible pace, with a workload that was completely different from what a typical first-year employee would experience.

Everyone was working their butts off. But the senior members kept a cool demeanor and never showed how hard they were working. Yet they were all the ones who delivered solid results. The members from that era were all truly on a high level.”

On top of that, after I joined, a limited-time project called “Country Musume. featuring Konno and Fujimoto (Morning Musume.)” began, and Fujimoto and Konno ended up joining “Country Musume.”

“Right from my debut song, I found myself on stage with those two. At first, I might have underestimated them a bit, but since I’d already dropped out of school, I couldn’t afford to show any weakness—I had no choice but to make a living in show business. That’s probably why I was able to give it my all, thinking, ‘I’ve got to hang in there no matter what.’”

She gave massages to customers from morning until 2 a.m.

However, “Looking back, I didn’t achieve the level of success I’d envisioned,” says Saito.

“There was Mai Satoda (42), who had a huge breakthrough as a ‘dumb’ celebrity, and I wasn’t exactly the one who stood out the most in the group myself. Looking back now, maybe I should have taken a longer-term view and stayed in show business a little longer. But back then, there were just too many stars around me—Ayaya, Mikity, and Gomaki.”

Saito graduated from “Country Musume” at age 20 and left the entertainment industry. Leaving that glamorous world behind, she dove into a surprisingly different line of work.

“As a celebrity, you basically have no choice but to wait for offers from TV, and if a scandal breaks, you can lose your job, right? So, I longed for a job where I had a marketable skill, and I worked as a beauty therapist visiting hotel guest rooms and giving traditional Thai massages.”

She kept her past as a former national idol a secret while working, but surprisingly, no one ever recognized her.

“The owner was Thai, the treatment rooms were dimly lit, and I wasn’t wearing any makeup. There were times when I worked from morning until 2:00 a.m., but the customers never figured it out. No one would ever suspect that a former idol was working there, right? (laughs)”

When she was 24 and living that kind of life, a new job opportunity came from an unexpected source. “After I quit being an idol, I was betrayed by a guy I was dating—it was a really painful experience. At the time, one of the older women at work told me, ‘You really don’t have a good eye for men’ (laughs). I started asking the older women, ‘How do I learn to judge men better?’ and to make sure I didn’t forget what they told me, I posted it on Twitter as a way to take notes.

Then, a female editor noticed them and offered me a chance to “write a dating column.” She asked me to try writing two or three as a test, and when I did, she praised me, saying, ‘You’re better than I expected! We can use these as is.’ So, I started writing a dating column at age 24. Well, I did get some backlash, though (laughs).”

I’ll get back to the “backlash” later, but around this time, her social circle began to expand significantly.

“Back then, I was just going back and forth between work and home, and one day I realized, ‘I don’t have any friends. Is this really the kind of life I want?’ So, wanting to make friends, I started showing up at drinking parties in Minato Ward.

Around the time of the 2008 Lehman Shock, I’d go out drinking with the ‘Hills crowd’ of the time and visit members-only bars in Nishi-Azabu where you had to punch in a PIN code to get in. I went to parties and drinking gatherings like crazy. I just love meeting new people,”

However, she emphasizes that this was “different from what’s known as ‘paid socializing.’”

“Young people these days try to sell their time for a high price, don’t they? But I wasn’t like that. I wasn’t going because I wanted money; I simply wanted friends. Work is work, and personal life is personal life. It’s better to keep those separate.”

The conversation returns to the “backlash” Ms. Saito mentioned earlier. As she began speaking candidly about her love life, she reportedly received harsh criticism from her former fans. “I got absolutely slammed with comments like, ‘A former idol shouldn’t talk about romance! Don’t shatter our dreams!’ But even when people said that, , I’d been evolving the whole time, and my idol days felt like a distant memory. I thought, ‘I’ve already quit—doesn’t that make it irrelevant?’

After all, you guys don’t keep talking about the high school you graduated from forever, do you? I got all kinds of comments, but I just thought, ‘What’s wrong with that?’ Maybe it’s because being a former ‘Country Musume’ member was such a standout part of my background.”

Even so, she gradually began to focus her messaging toward female audiences.

“Male fans are always jumping from one idol to the next, right? I didn’t think I could keep going for long by relying on them. So I figured it would be better to build a fanbase of women.”

Saito, who has consistently shared her thoughts on romance, is now turning that experience into a community of its own.

“I’m always in love.”

She launched an online salon for women in 2023, and this year marks its fourth year. It consistently has about 150 members, and she says she’s “actually thinking about revamping it right now.”

“At first, the salon’s goal was ‘Let’s meet high-caliber men.’ But gradually, the women’s mindset started to change. There are more and more women who aren’t just thinking, ‘I want to marry a high-caliber man,’ but also ‘I want to earn my own money’ and ‘I want to become high-caliber myself.’”

In fact, quite a few women have seen their “lives transformed” thanks to the salon.

“I’ve helped a significant number of salon members get married—by organizing social gatherings and workshops. Every month, someone gets married or has a baby. When you’re single, it’s hard to imagine what life will be like after marriage or having a child, isn’t it? So, first, I help members get their thoughts in order and apply a little pressure to pave the way toward marriage.”

Through my work with these women, I’ve noticed that the landscape of marriage hunting has changed.

“These days, since everyone gets plastic surgery, just looking good isn’t enough. That’s a given—the real question is how you refine yourself beyond that. Men are changing, too; I think they’re less likely to see you as a serious prospect unless you’re on par with them in terms of qualifications.

Prices for apartments in Tokyo are rising, and the man you choose can change the course of your life.
In show business, you’re selling yourself—and the same goes for marriage hunting. That’s why I draw on my experience from my days in show business to provide one-on-one personalized consulting to each client.”

Activities at the salon, such as meetups and workshops, take place about 4 to 10 times a month. When asked about Ms. Saito’s own love life—

“I’m always in a relationship myself. That part hasn’t changed a bit since way back (laughs).”

Her advice for women struggling with romance and marriage hunting is truly characteristic of her.

“You should think about when your ‘prime’ is. If there’s a woman in her 20s and another in her 30s who are both equally ‘polished,’ men will choose the one in her 20s. There are celebrities who’ve had successful late marriages, but it’s better not to look at them and think, ‘I’ll be fine too’ .

I think it’s better to ‘sell’ yourself while you’re still in your 20s, when your value is high. Even if it doesn’t work out, these days you can still be popular even if you’re divorced. Just having been married gives you the title of ‘having been chosen by someone once.’ If you marry late, it’s a one-shot deal—you have no second chances. Even if you marry at 26 and get divorced after two or three years, you’re still only 29.

Maybe I started thinking this way because I was in the entertainment industry. Since celebrities are in the business of perfecting their craft, they gain more depth and new skills as they get older. In other words, celebrities compete on the basis of charm that transcends age, so it’s true that some people do end up having good marriages precisely because they marry later in life.

However, if you’re working a regular job, it’s hard to follow the same path as a celebrity. That’s why I tell my salon members to start looking for a partner and have their first child while they’re still in their 20s. “Don’t miss your ‘prime time.’”

It’s been about 20 years since she graduated from being an idol. I asked Ms. Saito, who has walked many different paths since then, once again what “Country Musume” meant to her.

“That’s a tough question. If I had to say, it was my starting point. That was my first career, I guess.”