Morning Musume and Hello Project Ichii was born in
Funabashi,
Chiba, and joined the girl group
Morning Musume in 1998. She, along with
Mari Yaguchi and
Kei Yasuda, formed the second generation of members. While in Morning Musume, Sayaka Ichii was put into the spin-off group,
Petitmoni with
Maki Goto and
Kei Yasuda . Ichii was also part of the
Hello Project! Summer Shuffles 2000 group Aoiro 7. She also recorded a folk song album with
Yuko Nakazawa. She left Morning Musume in May to continue her education.
After Morning Musume Sayaka Ichii graduated from Morning Musume and
Hello! Project after the single "
Happy Summer Wedding" in 2000. A year after she left, she formed the group
Ichii Sayaka in Cubic-Cross, trio with Taisei (keyboardist from
Sharan Q), and wrote two of their songs. In 2003, Cubic-Cross disbanded, and after a solo single. She retired from the music business at the end of the year. In February, she joined Ranves Management agency. On August 30, she returned to TV in a TBS show called Sunday Japan. She also as a politician by the member of
Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan, she was a
member of House of Councillors of Japan on 26 April 2024, but she only served 93 minutes and resigned on the same day.
Personal life Ichii announced in 2004 that she was pregnant and was to marry the group's guitarist, Naoki Yoshizawa. The couple had two daughters but divorced in 2011. Ichii later remarried to a beautician and gave birth to a son. Her fourth baby was born in 2017. == Discography and releases ==