Actress, singer and entrepreneur Ko Shibasaki has built a remarkably diverse career. Alongside her poised beauty, luminous-looking skin and signature dark hair, she has attracted growing attention for the way she approaches everyday life—from skincare and exercise to homemade fermented foods, gardening and splitting her time between Tokyo and Hokkaido.
Born in Tokyo on August 5, 1981, Shibasaki began working in entertainment as a teenager. Her performance in the 2001 film GO earned her the Best Supporting Actress award at the 25th Japan Academy Film Prize. She went on to appear in major films including Yomigaeri, Crying Out Love in the Center of the World, The Uchoten Hotel and Suspect X, as well as popular television dramas such as GOOD LUCK!!, Dr. Coto's Clinic, Orange Days and Galileo. In 2017, she starred in the NHK historical drama Naotora: The Lady Warlord.
Her music career began in 2002, and songs including “Tsuki no Shizuku” and “Katachi Aru Mono” became widely known in Japan. In 2016, she established Les Trois Graces Inc., and in 2018 she was appointed a special environmental public-relations ambassador by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment.
She continues to work across acting, music, business, producing and directing, with a career spanning more than 25 years.
Looking across Shibasaki’s beauty and wellness habits over the years reveals an especially interesting theme: she has continued to reshape her routines around what feels right for her at each stage of life.
Until around her mid-30s, face masks were rarely part of her routine. Her interest in beauty expanded in her late 30s, while her 40s brought a broader approach encompassing face masks, diet, strength training, kickboxing, bathing, sleep, rest and time in nature.
Her relationship with food also has a long history. Losing her mother when she was 19 prompted her to think deeply about what she eats and how she lives. She later went through a period of around three and a half years when she managed her diet very strictly. Today, her approach is more flexible, with enjoyment and the simple pleasure of eating something delicious playing an important role.
She makes foods such as miso, natto, nukazuke pickles and umeboshi herself, and in Hokkaido she has even become involved in preparing soil and growing vegetables. Since around 2016, she has reportedly prepared roughly 10 kilograms of ume each year for homemade umeboshi.
Below, we explore Ko Shibasaki’s skincare, face masks, lotion, facial oils, serums and creams, facial yoga, scalp and hair care, diet, fermented foods, brown rice, miso, natto and umeboshi, strength training, kickboxing, walking, bathing, sleep, meditation, morning routine, life between Tokyo and Hokkaido, family, cats and the philosophy behind her beauty and wellness habits.
Ko Shibasaki’s Skincare Routine: How Her Approach to Beauty Changed in Her Late 30s
Ko Shibasaki is widely associated with luminous-looking skin and an elegant, understated approach to beauty. Interestingly, her own descriptions of her younger years reveal a much simpler routine.
At a beauty event in 2024, Shibasaki recalled that she had once been fairly casual about skincare. Until around her mid-30s, she rarely used face masks and was not particularly proactive about sunscreen.
Her relationship with beauty began to change significantly in her late 30s. The long filming period for the 2017 NHK historical drama Naotora: The Lady Warlord was also part of a period when she became increasingly conscious of beauty and aging.
In a 2025 interview, she reflected on noticing changes in her skin as she grew older and becoming more attentive to the fundamentals of daily skincare.
One particularly memorable episode involved a face mask containing hyaluronic acid.
After wearing the mask before bed, she enjoyed how her skin felt the following morning. She has described experiences like this as helping skincare become something genuinely enjoyable for her.
💡 Beauty became something she could enjoy
Face masks were rarely part of Shibasaki’s routine until around her mid-30s. As she began experimenting with more skincare in her late 30s, beauty gradually became something she approached with greater curiosity and enjoyment.
In a self-care video she previously shared, her routine included applying a face mask followed by lotion, facial oil, serum and face cream.
Her approach to makeup also reflects how well she knows her own face. She has demonstrated applying eyeshadow with her fingers and using an eyelash curler according to the natural direction of her own lashes.
She also adjusts the intensity of her skincare according to how her skin feels.
In a 2022 interview, Shibasaki spoke about approaching skincare without pushing herself too hard. Some days are kept simple, while other days leave room for more elaborate care.
When choosing cosmetics, she has also spoken about valuing a sense of tokimeki—that feeling of excitement or delight when something genuinely appeals to her.
💡 Enjoyment matters when choosing beauty products
Shibasaki’s approach is flexible rather than rigid. She pays attention to her skin and mood, varies the amount of care she gives herself and values products that make beauty feel enjoyable.
In 2024, facial yoga was also introduced as part of her self-care routine. She has demonstrated working with areas around the sides of her scalp as well, bringing hands-on care into the time she spends looking after her face and hair.
Her approach today reflects an appreciation for the experience that comes with age while continuing to explore what suits her now.
For Shibasaki, beauty has increasingly become a way of understanding herself—a philosophy that extends beyond skincare into food, exercise, bathing, sleep and time spent in nature.
Ko Shibasaki’s Hair & Scalp Care: Adapting Her Routine to Her Hair
One of Ko Shibasaki’s most recognizable beauty features has long been her glossy dark hair.
In a 2018 conversation with hairstylist Miho Matsuura, Shibasaki spoke in detail about hair, scalp care, shampoo and food.
She explained that there were days when she chose not to use shampoo, adjusting her routine according to how her hair and scalp felt.
💡 Some days did not include shampoo
In a 2018 interview, Shibasaki described choosing her hair-care approach according to the condition of her hair and scalp rather than following exactly the same routine every day.
In a past self-care video, she also demonstrated applying hair cream before her hair had completely dried.
In 2023, she discussed a period when she had lightened her hair. Some bleached sections remained toward the ends, and she occasionally noticed dryness there.
Although dark hair is strongly associated with her public image, Shibasaki has experimented with different hair colors and adapted her care as her hair changed.
Her 2018 conversation about hair naturally expanded into food, fermentation and organic living—interests that would later become increasingly visible through her homemade miso and natto and her vegetable growing in Hokkaido.
Hair, scalp, skin and food all sit within the larger context of everyday life for Shibasaki. Her approach is to observe how she feels and create a balance that suits her at the time.
Ko Shibasaki’s Diet: Brown Rice, Miso, Natto, Umeboshi and the Joy of Eating
Food is one of the richest and most revealing parts of Ko Shibasaki’s approach to beauty and wellness.
Today, she is interested not only in the ingredients she eats but also in the people and processes behind them.
That curiosity has evolved from choosing food to preparing, fermenting and preserving it herself—and eventually to growing ingredients in Hokkaido.
She has shared meals centered around brown rice, miso soup and vegetables, while homemade miso, natto, nukazuke pickles and umeboshi have become part of her hands-on relationship with food.
Around 10kg of Ume Each Year—Plus Homemade Miso and Natto
Her annual umeboshi-making is particularly impressive.
In a 2024 interview, Shibasaki said she had been preparing around 10 kilograms of ume each year since 2016.
She makes enough that the next ume season can arrive before the previous batch is finished, leaving her with an ever-growing supply—an amusing glimpse into just how established this seasonal ritual has become.
💡 Around 10kg of ume every year since 2016
Making umeboshi has become a long-running seasonal ritual for Shibasaki. She sometimes still has previous batches when the next ume season arrives.
She also makes natto herself, cooking soybeans and fermenting them with natto cultures.
In 2025, she spoke about her desire to make foods “from scratch,” including preparing miso from soybeans and making her own natto.
She has also made nametake by simmering enoki mushrooms with seasonings such as mirin and soy sauce, storing it in jars to enjoy gradually.
Another favorite is a hearty bowl of miso soup made with her homemade miso. She has said that a meal of rice and miso soup filled with whatever ingredients she feels like eating can be satisfying in itself.
She sometimes adds grains to rice according to her mood, with amaranth among the ingredients she has mentioned using regularly.
💡 From choosing food to making—and growing—it
Brown rice and vegetables sit alongside homemade miso, natto, nukazuke, umeboshi and nametake in Shibasaki’s kitchen. Her interest in food extends to enjoying the process of making things herself.
Losing Her Mother at 19 Became a Turning Point in How She Thought About Food
There is also a deeply personal story behind Shibasaki’s interest in food.
During a television appearance in April 2026, she spoke about losing her mother when she was 19 years old and described the experience as an important turning point in how she began thinking about food.
At a young age, that experience encouraged her to think more deeply about the choices available to her in everyday life, gradually expanding her interest in food and the environment.
💡 Her exploration of food has a deeply personal origin
Shibasaki has spoken about losing her mother at 19 as an important experience behind her interest in what she eats and how she lives.
From Three and a Half Years of Strict Eating to a More Flexible Approach
Shibasaki’s relationship with food has continued to evolve.
In a 2025 interview, she revealed that she had once spent around three and a half years managing her diet very strictly.
That experience eventually led her toward a more flexible approach.
One of the simple ideas she now values is eating what she genuinely wants to eat.
Alongside thinking about nutrition, she places importance on feelings such as “delicious,” “fun” and “happy.” That includes occasionally enjoying foods simply because she likes them, making pleasure and emotional richness part of the way she thinks about eating.
💡 A strict three-and-a-half-year period eventually gave way to greater flexibility
Shibasaki has explored highly disciplined eating in the past. Today, enjoyment and the pleasure of delicious food have become important parts of the balance she chooses for herself.
She has also recalled that shojin ryori, traditional Buddhist cuisine, did not particularly appeal to her in her early 20s, yet she began to appreciate it in her 30s.
Tastes and values change over time, and Shibasaki appears comfortable allowing those changes to shape the way she eats.
For her, food is more than simply satisfying hunger. Learning where ingredients come from, preparing them herself and even growing vegetables from the soil in Hokkaido are all part of a broader way of engaging with everyday life. Food therefore sits naturally alongside skincare, exercise, sleep and her living environment within her wider approach to beauty and wellness.
Life in Hokkaido: Gardening, Nature and Shibasaki’s “Luxurious Solitude”
An important part of Ko Shibasaki’s current lifestyle is the time she divides between Tokyo and Hokkaido.
Although she was born in Tokyo, both of her parents are from Hokkaido. She had connections to the region from childhood, including ski trips with her father.
In 2020, she built a home in Hokkaido and began developing a two-base lifestyle between there and Tokyo.
The house was originally created partly from a desire to give her Hokkaido-born father a place where he could spend time in his home region.
Over time, Shibasaki herself began using the house more frequently, and it became an important base in her own life.
💡 The Hokkaido house was originally built with her father in mind
Wanting her Hokkaido-born father to have a place to spend time in his home region helped inspire the house. It later became an important base for Shibasaki herself.
Growing Vegetables from the Soil as a Personal “Experiment”
Gardening and farming have become important parts of Shibasaki’s time in Hokkaido.
She has been involved from soil preparation through harvesting and cooking, growing vegetables she wants to eat, including water spinach and cucumbers.
Shibasaki has described the process of planting something, allowing it to grow naturally, eating it and observing how she feels as something like a personal “experiment.”
On one occasion, after finishing a day of farm work and beginning to leave, she was still so curious about the vegetables that she went back to check the field once more.
💡 She once went back to the field after the day’s work was over
Growing food is something Shibasaki approaches with genuine curiosity. Even after finishing work for the day, she once returned to check on the vegetables again.
Hokkaido winters can be severe. Shibasaki has described temperatures falling to around −20°C (−4°F), with icicles reaching roughly one meter in length. She also chops firewood herself for the wood-burning stove.
💡 −20°C winters, meter-long icicles—and chopping her own firewood
From working in the garden to preparing firewood during Hokkaido’s harsh winters, seasonal changes are a tangible part of Shibasaki’s life there.
Finding “Luxurious Solitude” in Nature
Shibasaki has described time spent alone in Hokkaido, surrounded by the sounds and scents of nature, as “luxurious solitude.”
She listens to the forest, breathes deeply and directs her senses toward the natural environment around her.
These moments can also provide creative input. She has spoken about inspiration arising in nature, sometimes even prompting words or poetry.
The contrast is striking: in Tokyo, she works closely with many people across acting, music and business; in Hokkaido, she has space for quiet time alone. Both have become part of the rhythm of her life.
💡 “Luxurious solitude” surrounded by nature
Shibasaki uses the phrase “luxurious solitude” to describe quiet time surrounded by the sounds and scents of Hokkaido. The region has also become a source of creative inspiration.
Ko Shibasaki’s Exercise, Morning Routine, Bathing & Sleep Habits
Exercise has become another significant part of Ko Shibasaki’s wellness routine.
In recent years, she has incorporated strength training around twice a week as well as kickboxing.
In 2025, her routine was described as kickboxing roughly once a week, gym training twice a week and making time for walks of around an hour.
Strength training, kickboxing and walking give her a varied approach to movement, allowing her to incorporate different forms of physical activity into her schedule.
💡 Strength training, kickboxing and hour-long walks
In a 2025 account of her exercise routine, Shibasaki described gym training around twice a week, kickboxing roughly once a week and making time to walk for about an hour.
A Three-Hour Morning Routine with Meditation, Cleaning, Plants and Cooking
Shibasaki has long placed particular importance on her mornings.
In a morning-routine video she shared in 2020, her day began by checking her body temperature, cleaning her tongue, drinking warm water and meditating.
She then moved on to cleaning, spending time with her cats, watering plants, drinking tea, eating breakfast and even preparing ingredients for dinner. Altogether, the routine showed how she could spend around three hours in the morning tending to both herself and her home.
In 2023, she again spoke about the importance of morning activities and how they can set the tone for the rest of her day.
Her routine evolves with where she lives and what her life requires at the time.
💡 Around three hours for her morning routine
Tongue cleaning, warm water, meditation, cleaning, plants, cats and food preparation all appeared in Shibasaki’s 2020 morning routine, reflecting how much she values the beginning of the day.
Bathing Twice a Day and an Eight-Hour Sleep Schedule on Days Off
Bathing is another ritual Shibasaki has spoken about valuing in recent years.
She has described taking a bath twice a day, in the morning and evening. Her morning bath is shorter, while she may spend around 20 minutes in the bath at night.
She sometimes adds magnesium chloride, or nigari, to the bath and makes bathing part of her routine even during busy periods.
She has also shared specific details about sleep.
In an example of her Tokyo day-off routine presented in 2022, she went to bed at around 10 p.m. and woke at around 6 a.m., giving her approximately eight hours of sleep. She has said that she enjoys sleeping and likes to go to bed and wake early whenever possible.
💡 Two baths a day and an eight-hour sleep example
Shibasaki has described taking shorter baths in the morning and spending around 20 minutes in the bath at night. Her 2022 day-off schedule also included approximately eight hours of sleep from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m.
Four Hours of Cleaning on a Day Off
One of the more surprising details in Shibasaki’s day-off routine is how much she enjoys cleaning and organizing.
In the schedule she shared in 2022, she spent roughly four hours—from around 7 a.m. until 11 a.m.—cleaning and tidying.
She has spoken enthusiastically about organizing and has even helped tidy other people’s homes.
The interest appears to go back to childhood. She has recalled enjoying neatly arranging objects in her school supply box. She also makes osechi, the traditional Japanese New Year dishes, each year and enjoys arranging the food beautifully inside the tiered jubako boxes.
💡 Four hours of cleaning—and sometimes organizing other people’s homes
Shibasaki genuinely enjoys putting spaces in order. From childhood school boxes to osechi presentation and her present-day home, arranging things neatly has long appealed to her.
She moved frequently during her 20s and has even described herself as someone who loved moving house.
By her late 20s and into her 30s, however, she increasingly found pleasure in making one place comfortable and personal.
She has helped coordinate friends’ interiors and has also adapted her own home with her cats’ comfort in mind.
For Shibasaki, the home environment sits naturally alongside food and sleep as part of creating a daily life that feels comfortable and well considered.
What We Can Learn from Ko Shibasaki’s Beauty & Wellness Philosophy
Following Ko Shibasaki’s beauty and wellness habits from her teens through her 40s reveals a life shaped by curiosity, experimentation and a willingness to change her routines as she changes.
Losing her mother at 19 became an important turning point in how she thought about food and everyday life.
During her 20s, while building an intense career as an actress and singer, she also developed a growing interest in what makes a home feel comfortable.
In her late 30s, beauty became something she increasingly enjoyed. In her 40s, her routines expanded to include growing vegetables from the soil in Hokkaido, making miso, natto and umeboshi, strength training and kickboxing.
Bathing, sleep, meditation, cleaning and intentional rest have also become part of the broader self-care habits she has discussed publicly.
Travel, Hot Springs and Time with Her Cats
Shibasaki’s idea of self-care also includes travel, hot springs and quiet time at home.
She has long valued travel as a way to step outside her familiar surroundings, encounter different landscapes and rediscover aspects of herself.
She also enjoys hot springs. On days off, she values what she has described as unstructured or “blank” time—making tea and simply sitting without filling every moment with activity.
More recently, she bought a single-seat chair and made a point of trying to sit in it at least once a day. Amusingly, she has admitted that once she sits down, she sometimes ends up half asleep.
Her cats are another important part of life in Tokyo.
Shibasaki has lived with cats for many years and has welcomed rescue cats into her family. From caring for them in the morning to having them settle around her feet, pillow or shoulders at night, time with her cats forms part of the everyday rhythm of home.
💡 “Sit in the chair once a day”—and sometimes fall asleep
Despite her active schedule, Shibasaki deliberately makes room for stillness. Tea, travel, hot springs, her cats and moments of doing very little all have a place in her approach to self-care.
From Caring for Herself to Caring About People and the Environment
Shibasaki’s approach to beauty and wellness has gradually expanded from caring for herself to considering the people and environment around her.
During busy periods, she consciously makes room for new input through travel and time in Hokkaido. Nature can also feed back into her creative work and provide fresh inspiration.
Her appointment as a special environmental public-relations ambassador for Japan’s Ministry of the Environment in 2018 reflects another part of a long-standing interest that now connects food, home, nature, work and lifestyle.
At the Hokkaido house originally created with her father in mind, she grows vegetables and chops firewood through harsh winters while enjoying what she calls “luxurious solitude.”
Back in Tokyo, she moves between her work as an actress, singer, entrepreneur and creator while making room for meditation, cleaning and time with her cats.
Time surrounded by nature and time spent working at the forefront of entertainment may look very different, yet Shibasaki has found room for both within the same life.
💡 Beauty and wellness have become part of a larger question: “How do I want to live?”
Skincare, food, strength training, bathing, sleep, home, Hokkaido, nature and time with her cats all come together within Shibasaki’s wider approach to everyday life.
After experiencing around three and a half years of strict eating, she moved toward an approach that also values enjoyment and the pleasure of good food. A once-simple beauty routine expanded into face masks, facial yoga and skincare chosen according to how her skin and mood feel.
Some days include vigorous exercise; quieter moments might involve tea and a comfortable chair. In Hokkaido, she spends time with the soil and natural environment, while Tokyo brings a different rhythm of work and home life.
Skin, hair, food, movement, bathing, sleep, home, nature, family and work are all connected by one underlying question: “How do I want to live?”
Rather than following one fixed routine forever, Ko Shibasaki’s story shows an ongoing process of getting to know herself and choosing beauty and wellness habits that suit each stage of her life. Across more than 25 years in the public eye, that curiosity and willingness to evolve have become defining features of the way she lives.
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