Mao Inoue is a Japanese actress. She debuted as a U-15 idol in 1999. She is best known to Japanese television drama audiences as Akane Imai in Kids War and as Makino Tsukushi in the popular Hana Yori Dango series. Inoue Mao started her career as an actress at five years old. She has been in many dramas since then. The viewers took notice of her in the series Kids War which ran from 1999 to 2003. In 2005, Mao took the lead role in the drama adaptation of the popular manga Hana Yori Dango, with Arashi member Matsumoto Jun, Shun Oguri, Shota Matsuda and Tsuyoshi Abe. Mao was awarded Best Actress by Television Drama Academy in the same year that the drama was aired. Inoue Mao revealed in one show that her mother encouraged her to join performing acts to learn when she was at the age of 4. She was also learning music and arts. Acting wasn't her priority then, but when she received her first fan letter, she decided to continue acting. Despite joining the show business at an early age, she also put priority to her school. In 2004, despite the rise of her popularity from the Kid's War series, she decided to put her acting on hold as she concentrated on graduating from University of Japan and enrolling at Meiji University. In 2005, at 18, Inoue enrolled in Meiji University, majoring in theater and literature; she chose Chinese as her second language elective. In her last year of college, she concentrated solely on her studies. In March 2009, she graduated from Meiji University. On August 23, 2017, after a year and a half hiatus, it had been announced that Mao Inoue would make a drama comeback in a Fuji TV drama in fall titled "Ashita no Yakusoku". The broadcast started on October 17, 2017.

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