Parental neglect, bullying and juvenile delinquency — these are the things the 20-year-old idol who goes by the name Kanano Senritsu says she has gone through. But she seems to be transforming the pain of her past into strength, having launched a group to support children who are struggling the same way she did.
"I want to save children who do not have anywhere to go," said Senritsu, whose disclosure that she went to a juvenile reformatory is a rarity for a person in the entertainment business. She is a chika "idol" whose main activity is performing live concerts, despite not belonging to a major agency, and she has over 30,000 followers on Twitter.
Senritsu was born in Osaka Prefecture, but she moved to Tokyo after her parents divorced. When she was a second-grader in elementary school, her mother did not return home for a week. "I used all the money that was prepared, and in the end there was nothing to eat," she recalled.