Aya Sugimoto

is a Japanese TV personality, actress, dancer, author, gravure idol and singer born in Kyoto. She also had a J-pop career in the late 1980s to the early 1990s.

Career Early life Aya Sugimoto grew up in Kyoto under a "strict"

Acting (2003–) After the notoriety she gained from the publicity surrounding the divorce, Sugimoto was one of the outspoken guests on the Friday late-night TV Tokyo talk show, Yearnings of the Goddess. Working with bondage master Go Arisue, she reprised the role first played by Naomi Tani in director Masaru Konuma's version of the novel, Flower and Snake (1974). She spent approximately 75% of her screen time unclothed and participating in humiliating sexual acts but went on in the same year to be voted the second sexiest woman in Asia by Playboy magazine, beaten only by Zhang Ziyi. The show also featured other adult actresses such as Yuma Asami in a story about a male college student moving to Tokyo and living in a shared house of women. Each of the twelve episodes were presented as 'lessons' which featured sexual themes and nudity. Sugimoto stated in an interview about the series that “society can’t consist only of ‘high-quality’ elements, and that's also true for visual eroticism as well.

In November 2008 she performed a tango interpretation of the story of Sada Abe, a notorious prostitute who asphyxiated and castrated her lover. Titled Tango Nostalgia, the show was an extension of her performances on Nippon Television's Urinari Geinojin Shako Dansu-bu (ウリナリ芸能人社交ダンス部, a Japanese TV show similar to Dancing with the Stars in which she performed with comedian Kiyotaka Nanbara.

Sugimoto is currently a regular on the NTV variety show Majyotachi no 22ji, offering advice as a "love expert", alongside transgender entertainer Ai Haruna and model Tsubasa Masuwaka.

Discography Albums

Aya (Panam, 1988) – mini album Mizu no Naka no Chiisana Taiyou ( "The Little Sun in the Water") (Panam, 1988) Shakunetsu Densetsu ( "Red Hot Legend") (Panam, 1989) – mini album Body & Soul (Panam, 1990) Japanese Dream (Panam, 1990) Shiseikatsu ( "Private Life") (BMG Victor, 1991) Femme Fatale (Nippon Columbia, 1995)

Singles "Boys" (Panam, 1988) – Cover version of the 1987 Italo disco song by Sabrina Salerno "13nichi no Luna" ( "Luna on the 13th") (Panam, 1988) "Nichiyoubi wa Dame yo" ( "Sunday is No Good") (Panam, 1989) "B & S" (Panam, 1990) "Usagi" ( "Rabbit") (Panam, 1990) "Gorgeous" (Panam, 1990) "Kagayaitete..." ( "Shine On") (BMG Victor, 1991) "Ai ga Shiritai" (愛が知りたい – "I want to Know Love") (BMG Victor, 1992) "Le Soir ~Eien no Wakare~" (BMG Victor, 1993)

Filmography

Film 1987: Shōnan Bakusōzoku: Bomber Bikers of Shonan (Shōnan Bakusōzoku), dir. Nobutaka Nishizawa and Daiki Yamada 1993: Megami ga kureta natsu, dir. Takeo Imai 1994: A New Love in Tokyo (Ai no shinsekai), dir. Banmei Takahashi 1998: Ultraman Tiga & Ultraman Dyna: Warriors of the Star of Light (Urutoraman Tiga & Urutoraman Daina: Hikari no hoshi no senshi tachi), dir. Kazuya Konaka 2002: Ultraman Cosmos 2: The Blue Planet (Urutoraman Kosumosu: Za Burū Puranetto), dir. Tsugumi Kitaura 2003: Jam Films 2, dir. Hidenori Inoue 2004: Flower and Snake, dir. Takashi Ishii 2004: Girlfriend: Someone Please Stop the World, dir. Ryuichi Hiroki 2005: Gokudô no onna-tachi: Jôen, dir. Hajime Hashimoto 2005: Hana to hebi 2: Pari/Shizuko, dir. Takashi Ishii 2006: LoveDeath, dir. Ryuhei Kitamura 2006: Trapped Ashes, dir. Sean S. Cunningham, John Gaeta, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell and Joe Dante 2006: Ghost Train (Otoshimono), dir. Takeshi Furusawa 2007: Taitei no Ken, dir. Yukihiko Tsutsumi 2008: Johnen: Sada no ai, dir. Rokuro Mochizuki 2009: BLOOD Buraddo, dir. Ten Shimoyama 2010: Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate (Kamen Raidā Daburu Fōebā: Ē tu Zetto/Unmei no Gaia Memori), dir. Koichi Sakamoto 2021: Beautiful Lure, dir. Hiroshi Akabane 2021: Musicophilia, dir. Masaaki Taniguchi

Television 2003: Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon as Queen Beryl 2006: Jigoku Shōjo as Hone Onna