2002–2005: Hello! Project Kids In 2002, Okai auditioned for
Hello! Project Kids with the song "Country Road" by
Yoko Honna. Her audition tape was aired on
Morning Musume's variety show
Hello! Morning. She was placed in the group with fourteen other girls. In the same year, she appeared in the movie
Koinu Dan no Monogatari.
2005–2017: Cute In 2004,
Berryz Kobo was created with the intention of rotating all of the members of
Hello! Project Kids to make time for school, but the idea was later scrapped, and the remaining girls who were not chosen were re-branded under the name
Cute on June 11, 2005. In September 2007, Okai was added to a new unit called
Athena & Robikerottsu with
Risa Niigaki,
Aika Mitsui, and
Saki Nakajima. They sang the opening and ending theme songs for the
A-1 Pictures anime
Robby & Kerobby. The unit was effectively disbanded in March 2008, entering into an indefinite hiatus when the series ended. In 2009, Okai joined a newly formed unit called
Tanpopo#, a revival of former Hello! Project unit Tanpopo, with
Eri Kamei,
Yurina Kumai, and
Aika Mitsui. On November 9, 2010, a solo video of Okai performing the dance to Cute's then-latest single "
Dance de Bakōn" was released on the group's official
YouTube channel. The video received more than 100,000 views in two days, and had received over 1.2 million views by May 2011. Following the video's success, more solo "dance-cover" videos of Okai were uploaded, including her cover of
Aya Matsuura's song "
Love Namidairo", which was released on
iTunes on November 27 as Okai's first digital single. Her first solo live event, "Chisato Okai (Cute) Solo Live 2011 Vol.1: Kaisha de Odotte Mita!!" was held on January 25, 2011, at Pacific Heaven. A CD containing Okai's cover of
Miki Fujimoto's "
Romantic Ukare Mode", with "Love Namidairo" as the
coupling track, was sold exclusively at the venue of her second solo live, but was also released digitally as part of Hello! Project's
Hello Cover series. In August 2016, Cute announced plans to disband in June 2017. Okai expressed interest in becoming a television personality on variety shows following disbandment. She retired from the entertainment world on April 30, 2020. ==Personal life==