Ai Tominaga is one of Japan’s most internationally recognized fashion models, known for her 179 cm height, striking presence, long limbs and powerful runway posture.
From the outside, it can be easy to imagine that she simply started life with the kind of body, confidence and discipline required for high fashion.
Her own story is much more interesting.
As a teenager, her height was one of her biggest insecurities.
In her early 20s, she had not yet developed the detailed beauty, exercise and wellness routines she would later become known for.
After becoming a mother, she began exercising more seriously.
In her 30s, changes in her body, skin and stamina pushed her to pay closer attention to food, posture, training, sleep, skincare and haircare.
And in 2026, another major change arrived.
At age 43, Tominaga gave birth to her second child, 21 years after the birth of her first son.
Now 44, she is once again rebuilding her routines around a body and daily life that changed significantly through pregnancy, childbirth and caring for a newborn.
That makes her current beauty story about much more than maintaining a model’s appearance.
Across different stages of her life, Tominaga has repeatedly adjusted the way she cares for herself according to age, work, motherhood, physical changes and the realities of everyday life.
Born on August 1, 1982, in Kanagawa Prefecture, Ai Tominaga began modeling as a teenager.
At 17, she appeared on the New York fashion runway and went on to work in Paris, Milan, New York and other major fashion capitals.
Over the years, she has appeared in runway shows and campaigns for leading international fashion houses.
From 2014, she stepped away from much of her professional work for roughly three years, choosing to focus more closely on her son and family life.
After returning to work, she made headlines in 2020 when she returned to the Paris runway after an absence of around a decade.
Her career has also expanded beyond modeling.
She has appeared as an actor in Japanese dramas including Grand Maison Tokyo and NHK’s Ooku, in which she played Tokugawa Yoshimune.
She has also worked on projects connected with Japanese culture, social initiatives and business, and in 2023 co-founded the company Crossover.
In 2026, she launched her own official YouTube channel, sharing more of her life not only as a model, but also as a mother, actor, producer and individual navigating change.
Ai Tominaga Profile
Date of birth: August 1, 1982
Birthplace: Kanagawa, Japan
Height: 179 cm
Profession: Model, actor and producer
Marriage history: Married in 2004, divorced in 2009
Current partner: Actor Kazuma Yamamoto
Children: Two
Eldest son: Akitsugu Tominaga, model and actor
Second child: Born in May 2026
Tominaga married in 2004 and gave birth to her eldest son, Akitsugu Tominaga, in 2005. She divorced in 2009, and Akitsugu has since grown into a model and actor himself.
In 2025, she announced that she was expecting a second child with actor Kazuma Yamamoto, who has since been described publicly as her partner.
Their child was born in May 2026.
Marriage, motherhood, raising a child, taking time away from work and returning to an international career have all shaped the way Tominaga thinks about beauty, health, exercise, food and rest.
This article explores Ai Tominaga’s beauty and wellness routine through skincare, moisturizing, sun care, facial exercises, tongue exercises, scalp and haircare, posture, core training, Pilates, diet, Japanese food, sleep, rest, emotional balance and her 2026 postpartum rebuilding.
1. From Being Insecure About Her Height to the Global Runway: How Ai Tominaga Redefined Beauty
Today, Tominaga’s height looks like one of her greatest professional strengths.
For the teenage Tominaga, however, it was once a source of self-consciousness.
By age 15, she was already around 175 cm tall.
She has spoken openly about how uncomfortable she once felt about standing out from the people around her.
Modeling became a way to see that same physical difference from another angle.
She began entering modeling opportunities in part because she wanted to find a more positive way to view her height.
A photograph of her in her school uniform eventually attracted attention from people in the international fashion industry.
At 17, she was walking in New York.
Still a teenager, she suddenly found herself auditioning and working alongside models with different bodies, faces, ethnicities and cultural backgrounds.
One of the ideas she gradually absorbed was that there is no single definition of beauty.
Height can be distinctive.
Bone structure can be distinctive.
Eyes can be distinctive.
Standing out can become part of a person’s value rather than something to erase.
That experience later became part of a broader beauty philosophy: rather than trying to become someone else, learn how to work with the material that is uniquely yours.
💡 A Surprising Beginning | At 15, she was already 175 cm tall
The height that later became central to Ai Tominaga’s international modeling career was once something she struggled with. Modeling helped her gradually reinterpret “being different” as individuality.
Even after entering the global fashion world, confidence did not become automatic.
A model can walk a major runway one day and then be rejected at a casting the next.
When Tominaga returned to the Paris runway in 2020 after roughly 10 years away, she still had to attend castings and wait for decisions.
She has written about how that tension brought back memories of her younger years.
At one stage of her early career, she used to tell herself that she was “the most beautiful” before going out to face the fashion world.
It is better understood as a form of self-talk than a statement of superiority—a way of giving herself enough confidence to walk into an industry built around constant comparison and selection.
As she grew older, the way she thought about beauty evolved.
In her 30s, she began noticing changes in skin, stamina and body composition.
She has described ages around 32 to 33, and again around 35 to 36, as periods when she became particularly aware that her body was changing.
Rather than making youth the standard she had to return to, she increasingly focused on understanding the person she was at that moment.
One phrase associated with her approach is the idea of avoiding the feeling of “suddenly realizing” that something has changed.
Touch the skin regularly.
Look at the body in the mirror.
Notice posture.
Notice fatigue.
Pay attention to how food, sleep and activity relate to the way you feel the next day.
The habit originally grew from the self-management required in modeling, but knowing her current condition eventually became the foundation of almost everything Tominaga does around beauty and wellness.
Today, her identity extends far beyond the runway.
She is a model, actor, mother, businesswoman and cultural figure.
In 2026, she also returned to the experience of caring for a newborn after a 21-year gap.
What began as beauty for the runway has gradually become beauty for living a long, changing life on her own terms.
2. Moisturizing, Sun Care and Tongue Exercises: Her Face, Scalp and Hair Routine
One phrase often associated with Tominaga’s beauty philosophy is that beauty is built through daily accumulation.
At one point, she shared an evening beauty routine that could take around 90 minutes when bathing, skincare, body care, haircare and scalp care were all included.
That sounds extremely disciplined.
Tominaga has also been refreshingly open about the fact that she sometimes finds it tedious.
On busy days, she adjusts the routine and focuses on the essentials, such as moisturizing.
Her morning and evening routines have also served different purposes.
In routines she shared publicly in the past, mornings could begin with a simple lukewarm-water cleanse.
In a 2020 interview, she also described daily sunscreen as part of her morning skincare.
At night, the emphasis shifted toward removing makeup and the day’s buildup carefully, using foam and gentle contact rather than rough rubbing.
Because she has described her skin as tending toward dryness, moisturizing has remained one of her long-running priorities.
After bathing, she prefers to move into skincare soon after drying off.
She has often used her palms rather than relying only on cotton, pressing products gently into the skin and finishing by holding the face between her hands for a few seconds.
The point is not only application.
It is also another moment to notice how her skin feels that day.
💡 Evening Beauty Trivia | Her full routine has taken around 90 minutes
Bathing, skincare, body care, hair and scalp care can add up to a long evening routine. Tominaga has also described simplifying things on busy days, which shows that consistency matters more to her than performing every step perfectly every night.
A surprisingly memorable habit: tongue exercises in the bath
Tominaga has also shared facial exercises and routines that focus on movement around the face and neck.
One of the most memorable is a tongue exercise she demonstrated for VOGUE.
She begins by extending the neck and angling the chin upward.
Then she extends the tongue upward as far as feels comfortable and brings it back.
She demonstrated this 10 times.
Next, she moves the tongue from side to side for a total of 20 movements.
She has incorporated this during bath time alongside stretches for the neck and shoulder-blade area.
💡 Face-Care Trivia | 10 upward tongue movements, then 20 side-to-side
It is one of the more unusual routines Tominaga has shared publicly. Instead of requiring a special device, it fits into time she is already spending in the bath.
When performing facial self-massage, she has also described beginning around areas such as the neck and collarbone rather than concentrating only on the center of the face.
She has spoken enthusiastically about facial training, while also treating something as ordinary as laughing often as part of moving the face in everyday life.
Anyone experimenting with massage or stretching should keep movements comfortable and gentle rather than forcing the skin or working through pain.
Scalp and hair are part of the same beauty picture
Tominaga has long treated the scalp and hair as extensions of overall beauty care.
In one of her bath routines, she demonstrated carefully lathering shampoo and using a scalp brush while washing.
At different times, she has also incorporated deeper scalp-cleansing steps.
For hair, she emphasizes finding products that fit her own hair condition rather than simply adding more steps.
She has used combinations of shampoo, conditioner, scalp products and hair oil depending on the routine.
When drying her hair, she has demonstrated alternating warm and cool air.
Body care follows a similar philosophy.
Applying cream becomes an opportunity to notice the condition of the body.
Hands, nails and heels also become part of routine care.
Rather than treating the face as a separate project, she tends to think from scalp to feet as one connected body.
In 2023, changing skin led her back toward simpler skincare
Another important part of Tominaga’s beauty philosophy is that she does not treat an old routine as permanently correct.
In 2023, she spoke publicly about experiencing skin irritation that was unusual for her.
Instead of adding more and more products, she reduced the number of items she was using and returned to a simpler routine.
That decision fits the larger pattern that runs through her beauty habits.
The important question is not only “What should I use?”
It is also “What fits my skin and life right now?”
3. “Wear the Dress with Your Hips”: Posture, Core Strength and Pilates
Skincare explains only one part of Ai Tominaga’s visual presence.
Posture and the way she uses her body are equally central.
On a runway, a model is there to make clothing look its best.
Standing.
Walking.
Stopping.
Turning.
Small differences in alignment can completely change how a garment appears.
That is why Tominaga has spent years paying close attention to core strength and the hips.
She has also described very specific cues for posture.
When walking or sitting, she pays attention to the tanden, an area below the navel often used as a body-awareness cue in Japanese movement traditions.
When standing, she has described imagining the sternum opening slightly upward on a diagonal.
For someone who has spent decades on the runway, posture is not merely a pose created when the camera turns on.
It is something practiced through ordinary standing, sitting and walking.
💡 Posture Detail | Tanden when moving, sternum when standing
Tominaga has described using the tanden as a center of awareness while walking or sitting, and imagining the sternum opening diagonally upward when standing.
Interestingly, she did not begin serious physical training as a teenager.
She became more committed to exercise after having her first child in her 20s.
In her 30s, changes in stamina and body condition gave her even more reason to train deliberately.
Over the years, she has tried a wide range of movement styles, including yoga, Pilates, kickboxing, boxing, weight training, ballet and bodyweight exercises.
At one stage, a workout could begin with around 30 minutes of stretching.
That might be followed by roughly 30 minutes of walking.
Then came exercises for the legs, hips, upper body, abdominals and back.
Altogether, some sessions could last around two hours.
💡 A Runway Philosophy | “Wear the dress with your hips”
For Tominaga, hip training has never been only about measurements. She has explained that many structured dresses and trousers are designed around three-dimensional body lines, making the hips important to the way clothing hangs and moves.
One of the most memorable phrases from her beauty writing is the idea of “wearing a dress with the hips.”
She has explained that many Western garments are designed around more three-dimensional body shapes.
For her, training the hips became part of using her own frame to present clothing more effectively.
She has also emphasized muscles that support posture, including the inner thighs, rather than focusing only on visible abdominal definition.
Around 2022 to 2023, she described combining weight training, Pilates, yoga and bodyweight work across the week, with sessions often lasting about an hour.
Her training priorities continued to evolve.
By 2023, after years of experimenting with weights, yoga and boxing, she said that Pilates had become a central part of her routine.
In interviews from her 40s, she has also described exercising roughly three to four days a week at certain periods, combining Pilates, yoga, dumbbells and resistance bands.
And yet even Ai Tominaga has moments when motivation disappears.
She has joked that she can change into workout clothes, prepare to exercise—and then end up lying down on the sofa instead.
💡 Relatable Training Trivia | Even after changing clothes, she may end up on the sofa
Tominaga has said that exercising at home can make it easier to relax. That is one reason she sometimes chooses a gym or schedules exercise earlier in the day, when she knows she is more likely to follow through.
The solution is not endless self-criticism.
She uses an environment that makes action easier.
A gym adds structure and other people.
Morning exercise may fit her energy better than evening sessions.
The pattern is the same one that appears elsewhere in her lifestyle: understand your own habits, then design around them.
Not 100% strict all the time—closer to 80%
Tominaga is frequently described as highly disciplined, and professionally that description makes sense.
At the same time, she has said that aiming for something closer to 80% can suit her better than trying to live at 100% intensity every day.
On days off, she may stay in pajamas.
Read.
Watch films.
Order food.
Let herself be at home rather than continuing to perform the role of a model.
That separation between “on” and “off” is also part of the discipline required for a career that has lasted for decades.
4. Brown Rice, Miso Soup and French Fries: Her “Just Right” Approach to Food
Ai Tominaga’s eating habits are much more interesting than the stereotype that a top model must barely eat.
She has always liked food.
According to Tominaga, as a child she would regularly go back for seconds at school lunch.
In a graduation-year ranking, she was even named “number one big eater.”
💡 Unexpected Food Trivia | She was once voted “number one big eater”
As a child, Tominaga says she almost always went back for more school lunch. Her later food philosophy became less about denying her love of food and more about learning how to balance enjoyment with the needs of her work and body.
She also enjoys cooking.
When her eldest son was young, preparing baby food helped deepen her everyday cooking habits.
Over the years, she has spoken about making prepared dishes in advance, pickles and preserved foods, and at busy points even bringing her own meals to work.
A long-running foundation of her diet has been Japanese-style meals built around vegetables, fish, meat, soy foods and fermented foods.
One food guideline she learned from her grandmother is the Japanese phrase “magowa yasashii,” a memory aid associated with traditional ingredients such as beans, sesame, sea vegetables, vegetables, fish, mushrooms and potatoes.
She has used it as a practical framework rather than a rigid diet.
Foods she has mentioned regularly keeping at home include natto, tofu, eggs and green onions.
In winter, she also enjoys hot-pot meals and has experimented with versions such as sake-lees hot pot.
In 2023, she described one of her simple solo meals as fermented brown rice, pickles and miso soup.
She joked that the table looked like something Tokugawa Yoshimune might eat—a reference that was especially funny given that she had played Yoshimune in Ooku.
💡 Her Solo Meal | Brown rice, pickles and miso soup—“like Yoshimune”
For someone who has spent decades in international fashion, Tominaga’s everyday meals can be remarkably simple. Her sense of humor about the austere-looking meal also makes the routine feel distinctly her own.
From the famous “ramen twice a year” rule to finding the right balance
One of the most frequently repeated stories about Tominaga’s diet is that she once limited ramen to roughly twice a year.
In 2021, the rule became a popular television talking point.
Tominaga also made it clear that she genuinely likes ramen and could happily eat it much more often.
Her later comments show a more flexible philosophy.
In 2023, she described looking at balance across roughly two or three days rather than trying to make every single meal perfect.
She has also said that if she wants French fries, she may have them—sometimes around once a week during that period.
A phrase she likes is “ii anbai,” which can be translated loosely as finding the right balance or the right degree.
Instead of treating every meal as a test of discipline, she considers the overall pattern and adjusts according to how she feels.
Earlier periods of her career included stricter rules, including reducing white rice or paying closer attention to carbohydrates at night depending on her work and training goals.
Her food habits have continued to evolve as age, activity and physical circumstances change.
In an earlier VOGUE interview, Tominaga mentioned a body weight around 57 kg and body-fat percentage around 18% as personal reference points for herself at that time.
Those numbers belonged to a particular stage of her professional life.
In 2026, pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum life created a very different physical context.
Appropriate food intake, body weight and body composition vary widely from person to person.
Tominaga’s own comments increasingly focus on finding a body that allows her to move, work and live well rather than treating thinness alone as the goal.
She adjusts food according to the day
Another important part of her food philosophy is noticing how she feels.
Was yesterday’s meal heavy?
Has she been filming for several days?
Has she moved less than usual?
Is she tired?
She has described adjusting meals according to those conditions.
For example, after a substantial lunch, an evening meal might be built more around vegetables and soup.
Seasonal ingredients are also important to her.
After decades spent traveling internationally, some of the foods she repeatedly returns to are still deeply familiar Japanese staples: natto, miso soup, fish, vegetables and seasonal produce.
5. Sleep, Deep Breathing and Pajama Days: Why Rest Matters in Her Routine
Ai Tominaga’s beauty philosophy is often described through discipline, exercise and professional self-management.
An equally important part of the picture is sleep and rest.
In interviews around 2020, she described trying to get into bed before midnight and aiming for around seven hours of sleep.
She said that when her sleep dropped below what felt right for her, she noticed differences in mental sharpness and work performance.
Later interviews continued to place sleep alongside exercise and food as one of the foundations of her lifestyle.
Sleep needs vary between individuals.
The useful part of Tominaga’s routine is not that everyone should copy the number seven.
It is that she treats sleep as something to plan for, rather than whatever time happens to remain at the end of the day.
💡 Even a Top Model Has Pajama Days
On days off, Tominaga has described reading, watching films, ordering food and spending the day in pajamas. Rest is part of the rhythm that allows her to concentrate when work demands it.
Her six-part way of looking at life balance
In a 2020 VOGUE interview, Tominaga described visualizing her life almost like a six-sided shape.
Food.
Sleep.
Rest.
Exercise.
Beauty.
And private fulfillment, including intimate partnership.
Her idea was not that every category had to be maximized.
Instead, she used the overall shape to notice where her life felt out of balance.
Work may be taking too much space.
Sleep may be shrinking.
Family time may need more room.
Beauty and exercise may need adjusting.
It is a personal framework rather than a universal wellness formula.
But it helps explain why Tominaga often describes beauty as something that reflects the whole of daily life.
When emotions run high, she starts with a deep breath
Her approach to emotional reset can also be very simple.
When she feels irritated or something unpleasant happens, she has described slowing down and taking a deep breath.
She brings attention back to herself and gives the feeling a moment to settle.
Movement has also long been one of the ways she changes mental gears.
Just as important is the boundary between work and private life.
The international fashion industry is intensely competitive.
Tominaga’s decision to step back from much of her work in 2014 was partly connected with prioritizing time with her eldest son.
That meant pausing during a professionally important stage of her 30s.
Years later, she returned to work and eventually to the Paris runway.
Her career shows that rest and ambition do not have to be opposites.
Sometimes the pattern is to stop, regroup and then move again.
6. A Second Child at 43: Rebuilding Her Body and Beauty Philosophy in 2026
The biggest recent change in Ai Tominaga’s life came in 2026.
In May, at age 43, she gave birth to her second child.
It was 21 years after the birth of her eldest son.
The child’s father is actor Kazuma Yamamoto, who has been publicly described as Tominaga’s partner.
Tominaga has spoken openly about feeling some anxiety during pregnancy because she was giving birth at an older age.
With support around her, she moved through pregnancy and childbirth and is now once again living with the rhythms of caring for a newborn.
She has also remarked on how different the environment around parenting feels compared with 21 years earlier.
Pregnancy and childbirth brought major physical changes as well.
In a 2026 interview, Tominaga said she had gained around 17 kilograms during pregnancy.
At age 44, she said she still had “about five kilograms” before reaching the body condition she had been accustomed to before pregnancy.
But the most memorable part of her description was not the number.
She compared the experience to knocking down a structure built from blocks and beginning to build it again from the bottom.
💡 Her Biggest 2026 Change | About 17 kg gained during pregnancy
After decades of carefully managing her body for modeling, pregnancy and childbirth brought a major reset. Tominaga has described postpartum training as rebuilding the foundation one piece at a time.
This recent chapter changes the way older stories about Tominaga should be read.
The famous 57 kg figure.
The 18% body-fat reference.
The “ramen twice a year” story.
Those belonged to other stages of her life.
Now she is working with a 44-year-old postpartum body and has spoken about noticing that the process feels different from giving birth in her 20s.
Her food has changed too.
In September 2026, she said that while breastfeeding she had moved away from the brown-rice-centered routine she had followed previously and was eating white rice, sometimes mixed with grains.
The point was to adapt eating to her current life, including breastfeeding, parenting and rebuilding strength.
Once again, the pattern is consistent.
She does not keep an old rule simply because it once worked.
She adjusts it to the person and body she has now.
Returning to the gym after roughly 10 months away—and starting again with posture
In June 2026, Tominaga shared her return to more structured gym training on her official YouTube channel.
It had been roughly 10 months since she had trained seriously at the gym with her trusted trainer.
For someone with years of experience in Pilates, boxing, core training and strength work, the theme she returned to was surprisingly fundamental.
Posture.
That is almost symbolic of her career.
As a teenager, posture was part of learning how to walk a runway.
In her 30s, core and hip training became central to how she presented clothing.
Now, after her second childbirth, posture is again part of rebuilding from the foundation.
Rather than concentrating only on the scale, she is paying attention to how the body moves and supports itself.
Pilates, warming rituals and time to rest
In 2026, Tominaga also shared a visit to a postpartum care facility while preparing for a magazine cover shoot.
Her activities there included Pilates, mugwort steaming and a facial treatment.
Even with her long training history, she described parts of the Pilates session as demanding enough that simply keeping up felt challenging.
The facility also provided an environment in which qualified staff could care for the baby while the mother rested.
Postpartum exercise and recovery timelines differ widely between individuals and depend on health, pregnancy, childbirth and medical circumstances.
Tominaga’s current routine is therefore best understood as her own experience, supported by professionals and adjusted to her own condition.
After more than two decades of professional body management, she is still allowing herself to rebuild gradually.
Seen across her life, that is not a departure from her beauty philosophy.
It may be the clearest expression of it.
In her teens, she turned insecurity about height into individuality.
In her 20s, motherhood became one reason to begin exercising more seriously.
In her 30s, changes in stamina, skin and body led her to deepen her approach to training, food and beauty.
In her 40s, strict rules began to coexist with a more flexible idea of finding the “right balance.”
And at 44, she is learning what beauty and physical strength mean after a second pregnancy and childbirth.
In 2026, her beauty philosophy came back to one idea: beauty is ultimately about yourself
In July 2026, while appearing on a Japanese television program about beauty and aesthetic treatments, Tominaga described beauty as something that ultimately comes back to the individual person.
Her emphasis was on personal happiness and making choices for oneself rather than allowing outside judgment to define the entire meaning of beauty.
That idea carries particular weight coming from someone whose appearance has been professionally evaluated for decades.
At 15, she felt self-conscious about being different.
At 17, she entered an industry where she would constantly be cast, selected and judged.
At 44, her beauty philosophy has expanded toward a deeper question: How do I want to live in my own body now?
Across her beauty and wellness habits, several themes continue to appear:
- Notice small changes in skin and body rather than waiting until they feel dramatic
- Treat moisturizing as a consistent part of skincare
- Include everyday sun care in the wider skincare routine
- Think about the face together with the neck, shoulders, scalp, hair and body
- Use facial movement, including tongue exercises and everyday expressions, as part of her routine
- Value posture, core strength, hip strength and the way the body moves—not only body weight
- Build meals around Japanese foods and seasonal ingredients while allowing flexibility
- Change exercise methods as age, schedule and physical condition change
- Treat sleep and rest as important parts of wellness
- Create a clear difference between professional intensity and private downtime
- Let marriage, parenting and major life changes reshape the daily routine when necessary
- After pregnancy or other major physical changes, begin again from the body that exists now
The most useful part of Ai Tominaga’s story is not copying her height, weight, diet rules or exact workout schedule.
It is the habit of observing the person she is now and updating the routine to match.
Look at posture.
Notice how the skin feels.
Adjust food when life changes.
Change the workout when the body needs something different.
Enjoy favorite foods.
Create space for rest.
Allow family life to change the schedule.
And when life changes dramatically, begin again from the present rather than chasing an old version of yourself.
Ai Tominaga’s beauty is less about preserving a finished version of herself and more about repeatedly creating the best version that fits her current age, work, family and life.
The 17-year-old walking the international runway.
The mother raising her son in her 20s.
The woman in her 30s learning more about training, food and skincare.
The model who paused her career and later returned to Paris.
And now the 44-year-old mother rebuilding after a second childbirth.
For Tominaga, beauty ultimately comes back to knowing who you are now—and continuing to work with that person.
