Chieko Kawabe

Chieko Kawabe (河辺 千恵子) is a female J-pop singer, model, radio host and actress. She was born on February 24, 1987 in Tokyo. She is a graduate of Toshima, Tokyo. As of her marriage to producer Masato Ochi on August 8, 2008, her legal name is Chieko Ochi (越智 千恵子).

Career
She was born on February 24, 1987 in Tokyo to a Japanese father and a Filipino mother of Spanish descent. Starting at the age of twelve, Kawabe played the role of Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury in the Sailor Moon Musicals, or Sera Myu. She started in 2000, in the Fan Kansha event for the 2001 musical, Transylvania no Mori, Kaiteiban. She continued for a couple more years, appearing in five musicals total, finishing with the 2002 special musical, 10th Anniversary Special. During these musicals, she appeared in some of the more special musicals, including the Death Vulcan special revue show, the second half of the musical being an entire musical revue showing, and the first Sera Myu DVD, the 2002 10th Anniversary event. She also appeared as a musical guest for the next Fan Kansha, performing signature solo song, "Drive Me the Mercury" with the next Mercury actress, Wakayama Manami. She appeared again in the Sailor Moon world as Usagi Tsukino's best friend, Naru Osaka in the 2003-2004 live action series, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.

Two years after her role in these musicals, Kawabe set off on her own, releasing the single "Be Your Girl" on April 27, 2004. This single took off successfully, with the song 'Be Your Girl' becoming the ending theme song to anime "Elfen Lied" and her other song, 'Hoshi ni Negai Wo' being the end theme song to Otogizoshi. Since that initial release, she has had off and on success, releasing a few more singles. Her next single, Shining, was released on November 24, 2004. This single took fairly well also, with her songs Shining, Cry Baby, and Quiet Riot. This single brought Kawabe closer into the pop scene of Japan, more so than her previous album.

On January 25, 2005, the single Kizunairo was released. This contained the songs Kizunairo, I Can't Wait, and Hidamari. Notable for this single, is the song I Can't Wait, the theme song to the Japanese version of the show Lizzie McGuire. Shortly after this, was the release of her first, and thus far only, full album, Brilliance. This album has eleven songs total, some of which were from previous albums, but nonetheless, this album was quite popular and proved Kawabe's talent and musical skill. This was followed by the single "Candy Baby" in July, 2005.

Almost a year passed before any more releases were made, but in April, 2006, Kawabe released another single, Sakura Kiss, which had two songs, the song 'Sakura Kiss' being the theme song to the anime Ouran High School Host Club. While performing her music video for this song, she was wearing a frog costume. The single was semi-successful reaching #71 on the Oricon 200 and charting for 6 weeks.

Currently Chieko is a weekly host on a popular radio station in Harajuku and has returned to the modeling world. There has been speculation of Chieko releasing more music in the future because of promotional messages and images on her Japanese blog.

On August 08, 2008, Kawabe and TV producer Masato Ochi filed for marriage. Kawabe addressed this matter on her blog.

Profile
Blood type:A Zodiac sign:Pisces
 * Alternate romanizations: Chieco Kawabe ("Chieco" is the spelling she uses in her signature)
 * Nicknames: Chie, Chieco, Mameko, Rakkyo, Becchi, Chie-chan
 * Birth date: 1987-02-24

Trivia

 * Kawabe is the only actress who participated in Sailor Moon Musicals and the live action series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon.
 * Kawabe is the 5th actress who played Ami Mizuno/Sailor Mercury.
 * In Kawabe's music video for Sakura Kiss she is wearing a frog costume, the same from one of the Fankans from Sera Myu.