She is a graduate of
Okinawa Actors School. She began her music career in 1997 as a teenage '
idol singer' in the
J-pop groups Folder and
Folder 5. She made her acting debut in the same year, starring as Shiori Uchiura / Little Girl in the
kaiju film
Rebirth of Mothra II. Her first television appearance came in 2005, when she played Elly in
Ultraman Max. Her film career recommenced as Sayu Yagami in 2006's
manga-adaptation thriller film
Death Note, and in 2008 she starred as Yōko Ozawa in
Love Exposure, a
comedy-dramaart film directed by
Sion Sono. Her performance in
Love Exposure brought her critical attention and won her and her team several awards. Since then, Mitsushima has had starring roles in numerous films and television dramas including 2010's
Sawako Decides, written and directed by
Yuya Ishii. Mitsushima has made occasional vocal contributions to Japanese pop singles. She featured as a vocalist in the fictional band SRM on
Stephanie's "Pride ~A Part of Me~", the title song for the 2009 Japanese drama film
Pride. In 2017, she provided lead vocals for fictional band Doughnuts Hole's "Otona no Okite", the theme song for television drama
Quartet, in which she starred as Suzume Sebuki. In the same year, she appeared as a featured vocalist in
Mondo Grosso's song "Labyrinth" and starred as a dancer in the music video (over 35million views on
YouTube, ). == Personal life ==