Fumi Nikaido was born on September 21, 1994 in Naha, a southern coastal town on Okinawa Island, the largest island in the Okinawa Prefecture, Japan. At age twelve she was scouted by Sony Music Artists after her picture appeared in an Okinawa edition of ‘Picture Book of Beautiful Girls’, a free regional publication that features local amateurs as models.
This early discovery created the opportunity for her to work as a model and television actress while still in her early teens. Nikaido began to appear regularly in prominent fashion and lifestyle magazines and her ‘girl next door’ look quickly helped her garner roles in television campaigns for companies ranging from Tokyu Electric Railway (2007) to Koikeya Potato Chips (2009/2010), among other nationally distributed advertisements.
As she became more widely recognized, Nikaido also began to appear as an actress in popular television dramas. Her first role was in the ANB Friday Night Drama "Atami no Sousakan" in 2010, in which she played a well-regarded regular role. Around the same time, she made her film debut as Hikari Horie, a principal supporting character in Koji Yakusho’s Gamo no Abura [Toad’s Oil]. The film was well-received in Japan, and Nikaido quickly began to play more expansive roles, appearing regularly on the NHK BS Period Drama "Tempest" throughout 2011 and CX Saturday Drama "Mirai Nikki Another : World" in 2012.
At the same time, Nikaido was invited to play her first starring role in a feature film: conflicted high school shogi (Japanese chess) player, Michiko, in Yu Irie’s rock drama Gekijoban Shinsei Kamattechan Rock ‘n’ Roll wa Nariyamanai [Ringing in Their Ears] (2011). The film, which centered on the concert preparations of real-life rock band Shinsei Kamattechan, was a critical and commercial success, and Nikaido’s performance was especially lauded, earning her the "Best New Actress Award," along with several others, at the Tokyo TAMA Film Festival.
Coming off that success, Nikaido starred in Shion Sono’s large-scale dystopian drama, Himizu, a film based on the best-selling manga comic of that name and set in a Japan dealing with the direct aftermath of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami. The film made its international debut at the 68th Venice International Film Festival in 2011, where Nikaido and her co-star, Shota Sometani, won the Marcello Mastroianni Award, the festival’s highest prize for emerging talent-- an honor never before received by a Japanese actor. Himizu has been and will be distributed internationally in 2012 and 2013.
Nikaido is starring in "Aku no Kyouten," the newest feature film from director and provocateur Takashi Miike which is now in theatres in Japan.
Nikaido lives in Tokyo and has been attracting attentions as one of the emerging actresses.
Selected filmography
Au revoir l’ ete (Hotori no Sakuko), directed by Koji Fukada (March, 2013)
Brain Man (Nou Otoko), directed by Tomoyuki Takimoto (February, 2013)
Lesson of the Evil (Aku no Kyoten), directed by Takashi Miike (November, 2012)
The King and I (Osama to Boku), directed by Tetsu Maeda (September, 2012)
Himizu, directed by Shion Sono (January, 2012)
Looking for a True Fiancee (Yubiwa wo Hametai), directed by Yuki Iwata (November, 2011)
Ringing in Their Ears (Gekijo-ban Shinsei Kamattechan – Rock’n Roll wa Nariyamanai), directed by Yu Irie (April, 2011)
8mm, directed by Yuki Iwata (February, 2010)
Sorasoi, directed by Katsuhito Ishii (2009)
Toad’s Oil (Gama no Abura), directed by Koji Yakusho (June, 2009