"If I thought too much about my future plans, I would kind of get stuck," says Natsumi Abe. "So I just try to concentrate on the next day's work and do it as well as I can."
It's a serious statement on work ethic, but when Abe says it she delivers it with the shining smile that Japan fell in love with during her days as a teen idol in the popular girl group Morning Musume. She's now 31 and a committed actress, but the Muroran, Hokkaido, native still exudes the sweet demeanor of "Natch," her nickname from when she debuted in 1997 as one of the five original members of the group.
Abe is currently deep into rehearsals at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT) in Yokohama for "Miminashi Hoichi (Hoichi the Earless)," a new play based on a creepy 1904 novella written by Yakumo Koizumi — as the Greek-Irish immigrant Patrick Lafcaido Hearn (1850-1904) was known after taking Japanese citizenship.