Anna Tsuchiya

is a Japanese singer, actress and semi-retired model. Since 2005, she is primarily known as a singer. Biography Early life Tsuchiya was born in Tokyo to a Japanese mother and an American father of Irish and Polish descent (the surname of her father is Hider). In her earliest years, she spoke English and Japanese. Tsuchiya's parents divorced when she was seven. She has an older sister, Angela. Modeling career Tsuchiya's modeling career began at the age of fourteen after her older sister Angela, a former fashion model, suggested it. She entered her sister's former agency and was picked up by an agent who specialized in magazine-modeling. Her first jobs consisted of modeling for an open collection in Kobe and for Japanese Seventeen in 1998. Demand for her grew and by 2002, she was doing television commercials for Uniqlo and Edwin.