Ashina Sei, an established actor in high demand for TV dramas and films, was discovered dead in her Tokyo apartment Monday.
Both Tokyo police and her agency have confirmed that she died of suicide, age 36.Born in 1983 in Fukushima Prefecture as Igarashi Aya, she came to Tokyo while still a teenager and soon found work as a fashion model.
She made her acting debut in 2002 in the TBS network drama “The Tail of Happiness” (“Shiawase no Shippo”).
Beating nearly 800 other hopefuls, Ashina was cast as the Japanese lead in the 2007 François Girard historical drama “Silk,” a Japanese, Canadian and Italian co-production.She accumulated numerous TV and film credits in the past decade, including a lead role in the 2010 Kazuya Konaka drama “Nanase: The Psychic Wanderers” and a continuing role from 2017 to this year in the popular TV Asahi series “Aibo: Tokyo Detective Duo,” whose 19th season will air from October.
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