All About Risa Niigaki

Risa Niigaki, Japanese idol singer and member of Morning Musume from 2001-2012.

Risa Niigaki  is a girl who is so cute! She is one of those people who you just want to look at all day long. But along with her cuteness, Risa Niigaki also has a nice voice. Risa Niigaki is one of the leading members of the all-female pop music group called Morning Musume. In fact, she became one of the longest-serving band members of the group and she had been with the group since 2001 along with Ai Takahashi. Risa was born on October 20, 1988 in Kanagawa Japan. Risa got her start in the Japanese all-female pop music group Morning Musume in 2001. Her debut appearance was on the group’s 13th single titled “Mr. Moonlight.” This biography of hers will be done in order by year. In terms of overall cuteness, I think Risa ranks right up there with the lovely Ayumi Ishida whom I absolutely adore! Ishida and Niigaki are my top two favorite Morning Musume members with Eri Kamei being a close 3^rd.

2002

This year saw Risa appear in a drama called Angel Hearts

2003

Morning Musume was then split into two groups Morning Musume Otome Gumi and Morning Musume Sakura Gumi

2004

In this year Risa performed with the entire ensemble of Hello! Project under one unit titled H.P. All Stars. She released one single called “All For One & One For All.” She also released her very first photo book in 2004 called Niigaki Risa.

2005-2008

These next three years would see Risa becoming very busy and involving herself in many projects. On June 25, 2006 she released her second photo book called Ama Natsu. She also joined the Hello! Project concert unit called Wonderful Hearts.  on August 6-25, Risa along with the members of Takarazuka Revue performed Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella with Risa as the Prince. It was in May 2007 that Niigaki released her photo book called Isshun. The photo book shows Niigaki in Okinawa. She is also seen running around the beach while in a bikini! On April 25, 2008, Risa would show that she is indeed one of the most beautiful Morning Musume members when she released her 4^th solo photo book called Happy Girl. This may very well be the highlight of that year for her because she showed her impressive bikini body!

2009

In January 2009 Niigaki became the longest-serving member of Morning Musume.

It was announced by the official Anime Expo website that Japanese pop group Morning Musume would be making an appearance at the annual anime convention, the Anime Expo in Los Angeles, California in July 2009. They were the guests of honor at the event. Risa and all other members of the current lineup (as well as Koharu Kusumi) attended the Anime Expo. At the convention, Morning Musume held autograph sessions and a concert. There were about 7,000 people in attendance.

2011 would be a very significant year for Niigaki because it was then that Ai Takahashi announced that she would be graduating from Morning Musume following their autumn concert tour. Niigaki at that time was the group’s sub-leader and she would then become the group’s leader and then set the longest tenure in the history of the group for a while. She would also become the first leader to have been their youngest member. It would be on August 26, 2012 that both Niigaki and Takahashi would end up celebrating their 10^th year in Morning Musume. Niigaki would eventually graduate from Morning Musume on May 18, 2012 after a performance at the venue called Nippon Budokan.

It would be on July 15^th 2013 that Niigaki would hold a special show. This show was called Niigaki Risa First Summer Casual Dinner Show. In January 2015, there was a horror movie called Black Film that debuted in theaters that Niigaki starred in. Then in March 2016, she starred in the stage play adaptation of the manga called Akatsuki no Yona as the lead character Yona. In July 2018, Niigaki attended the Japan Expo in Paris to commemorate Hello! Project’s 20^th Anniversary and then there was a signing session.

2020

It was in this year that she starred in the stage play called Kyoubone as the main protagonist. This play took place from March 7 through 15^th 2020. She announced in August 2020 that she would be ending her exclusive contract with the agency called J.P. Room. She would however remain active in the entertainment industry and work on a freelance basis.  

SEE ALSO: New Morning Musume Member

Interesting Facts About Risa Niigaki

• She is the youngest and the last member of the 5^th generation to graduate from Morning Musume.
• Before joining Morning Musume, Niigaki was a finalist out of 1,000 entrants in the Kiss Girl Audition to become the new Tomy image girl, held by TV Tokyo’s Oha Suta program. She made an appearance in a commercial with the other finalist, Hasegawa Ai, for Tomy Karaoke Machine Kiss-site, but she ultimately lost out the Grand Prix prize to Hasegawa (ironically, Niigaki later starred in a commercial for the same company as a part of Morning Musume).
• Niigaki has done magazine modeling since the year 2000.
• She was the youngest member to become sub-leader at the time at 18 until Mizuki Fukumura became sub-leader at the age of 16.