Known for her elegant presence and quietly strong performances, actress Manami Higa has remained active at the forefront of Japanese television and film for many years.
Born on June 14, 1986, in Okinawa, Japan, Higa joined a modeling agency while she was still in high school. At 19, she moved to Tokyo to pursue acting. She has said that she arrived with savings of around ¥200,000, leaving Okinawa behind to begin a new chapter on her own.
Her national breakthrough came in 2007, when she was cast as the heroine of the NHK morning drama Dondo Hare. She went on to appear in many major productions, including Code Blue, Tenchijin, Marumo no Okite, DOCTORS: The Ultimate Surgeon, The Prince of Push, She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, and Sky Castle.
In 2025, Higa marked 20 years as an actress, and in June 2026 she turned 40. She also published her first essay collection, Mata ne., writing more openly than ever about work, love, marriage, family, age and the way she relates to herself.
Her beauty routine centers on hydration, seasonal use of oils and lightweight gels, facial lotion, UV care, and the feel and fragrance of the products she chooses.
For fitness, she has practiced kickboxing, personal training and yoga for years, while Pilates has become part of her more recent routine.
She also genuinely enjoys food, once saying that eating is one of the great pleasures of her life. Sleep and a regular daily rhythm matter to her, too. When she wants to reset mentally, she turns to morning meditation, painting, or time by the sea in Okinawa.
In her 20s, Higa pushed herself hard toward clear goals. By her mid-30s, she had begun giving more space to food, travel and rest. At 40, her outlook has become lighter and more selective, guided by ideas such as “only what I need, in the amount I need” and no longer feeling the need to present herself as more polished than she really feels.
Here, we take a detailed look at Manami Higa’s beauty and wellness habits, including skincare, fitness, diet, sleep, Okinawa, overseas travel, family, marriage views and the way she is approaching life at 40.
Manami Higa’s Beauty Routine: Lotion, Hydration, Oils, UV Care and the Influence of Her Mother
Higa’s approach to beauty is built around choosing what genuinely feels right for her skin and her senses.
In 2026, after turning 40, she described her skincare philosophy as using “only what I need, in the amount I need.”
At 40, Hydration Comes First — with Oils and Gels Changing by Season
In a 2026 beauty interview, Higa said that one thing she has come to value more as an adult is making sure her skin receives enough moisture.
When choosing facial lotion, she pays attention not only to how it feels on the skin but also to texture and fragrance.
She treats skincare as a pleasant part of the day and gravitates toward products she feels she can enjoy using over the long term.
Her body-care routine is similarly seasonal.
In a 2024 interview, she explained that she uses oil-based products during drier times of year and switches to lighter gel textures in summer.
On days when more skin is exposed, she uses sunscreen and carries a parasol. At the same time, she loves marine sports and sometimes goes diving in the sea when she returns to Okinawa in summer.
💡 Her beauty rule at 40: “Only what I need, in the amount I need”
From facial lotion to texture and fragrance, Higa values products that feel comfortable and easy to live with. She also adjusts oils and gels according to the season.
💡 She still loves diving in the Okinawan sea
UV care and a parasol are part of her routine, while the ocean remains something she enjoys fully. It is a very Okinawan balance between beauty care and outdoor life.
Her Mother Shaped Her Early Interest in Beauty and Aroma
One of the biggest influences on Higa’s sense of beauty has been her mother.
Her mother has worked in beauty as an esthetician and has also spent many years as an aromatherapist.
Growing up around that work meant that skincare, scent and self-care were part of Higa’s everyday environment from an early age.
The fact that she still pays close attention to fragrance in skincare at 40 feels like a natural extension of that upbringing.
💡 Her beauty roots begin with her mother
Higa grew up watching a mother who worked in beauty and aromatherapy. That environment helped shape the natural, sensory way she approaches skincare today.
Beauty in Her 40s Is About a Person’s Own “Color” and “Energy”
At 40, Higa’s definition of beauty has become broader.
She has said that what attracts her in a person goes beyond age or gender. She is drawn to people who seem to have their own distinct “color” and “energy.”
For her now, beauty includes atmosphere, character and the way someone has lived.
That marks a shift from the years when she focused intensely on body shaping toward a more individual, experience-based idea of beauty.
💡 Beauty in her 40s is about a person’s own “color” and “energy”
Higa is increasingly drawn to individuality itself — the kind of presence that develops through personality, experience and the way someone lives.
From a Sun-Tanned Tomboy to a Model
Her polished image today is very different from the way Higa describes herself as a child.
In elementary school, she wore her hair extremely short, was deeply tanned from being outdoors and was the kind of child who wanted to climb a tree whenever she saw one.
By middle school, that energetic nature had become highly disciplined. For a school marathon, she began training on her own around three months in advance.
After entering high school and joining a modeling agency, she began working with adults, grew her hair longer and gradually became more conscious of beauty and presentation.
💡 She started training three months before a school marathon
Long before her modeling days, Higa was an intensely active child who loved being outdoors and took physical challenges seriously.
Kickboxing, Pilates and Yoga: The Fitness Habits Behind Manami Higa’s Strong Core
Higa describes herself as naturally athletic and has always enjoyed moving her body.
Although she has a slender appearance, she once laughed in an interview and pointed out that she actually has a considerable amount of muscle.
Six to Seven Years of Kickboxing — Plus Personal Training, Yoga and Pilates
In a 2021 interview, Higa said she had already been practicing kickboxing for six to seven years.
She also incorporated personal training and yoga into her routine.
She sees acting as physically demanding work and has placed particular emphasis on building a strong core.
Long filming days and the physical demands of different roles make general strength and body control an important part of her professional foundation.
By 2025, she was also including Pilates alongside personal training and kickboxing as part of her body-maintenance routine.
💡 Kickboxing + personal training + yoga + Pilates
Higa has combined several different styles of movement over the years, creating a much more athletic routine than her delicate appearance might suggest.
Her Approach Shifted from Strict Body Shaping to Better Balance
In her 20s, Higa went through periods when she was extremely disciplined about shaping her body.
She has spoken about tightly controlling how much she ate while working toward an ideal physique.
By her mid-30s, rest and enjoyment had become more important parts of the picture.
On days off, she began giving herself more freedom to eat what she enjoyed, have a drink and travel.
Exercise remained part of her life, but it became one element within a broader lifestyle that also included food, rest and experiences.
By 2024, she was also talking about beauty as something connected to developing and expressing individuality.
Today, her fitness habits support a body and lifestyle that feel distinctly her own.
Diet, Sleep and Morning Meditation: A Simple Wellness Routine Built Around Enjoying Food
One of the most memorable things about Higa’s approach to food is how genuinely much she enjoys eating.
She Loves Meat and Says Eating Is One of Life’s Great Pleasures
In a 2021 interview, Higa said she loves meat so much that she could happily eat it every day.
She also has very few foods she dislikes and values eating a wide variety of foods in balance.
Her current style is built around enjoying food while staying active.
By her mid-30s, eating had become something she saw as part of enjoying life itself rather than simply something to manage.
💡 “Eating is one of the joys of life”
Despite her slender image, Higa loves meat and has very few dislikes. She places real value on enjoying meals rather than making food feel overly complicated.
Her Basic Rule: Eat Properly and Sleep at Night
In 2022, Higa described some of the habits that help her stay ready for work: eating proper meals, sleeping at night and maintaining a regular daily rhythm.
Acting means moving constantly from one production to another, meeting new people and working through long filming schedules.
For Higa, keeping the basics of everyday life steady has become an important foundation for a long career.
Ten Minutes of Meditation in the Morning — and Four to Five Hours Lost in Painting
Morning meditation is one of the ways Higa creates mental space for herself.
She opens the windows, changes the air in the room, takes a deep breath and lights a favorite incense.
Then, even if only for around ten minutes, she gives her attention to her breathing and checks in with herself before beginning the day.
Morning suits her better than evening for this kind of quiet practice.
Painting gives her a very different route into the same kind of deep concentration.
In 2022, she said that after returning to painting as an adult, she could become absorbed for four or five hours at a time.
Meditation brings stillness through breath, while painting brings focus through the hands. Both give her a way to step out of work mode and return to her own inner world.
💡 Her morning meditation: open the windows → breathe deeply → light incense → sit for 10 minutes
Air, scent and breathing all help shape the beginning of her day.
💡 Painting can keep her absorbed for four to five hours
Deep concentration is another form of switching off from acting and returning to a quieter part of herself.
Okinawa, the Sea and Overseas Travel: Returning to Zero and Finding New Inspiration
For Manami Higa, Okinawa is far more than her birthplace. It is the emotional base that helps support a long career in Tokyo.
In Okinawa, She Returns to a Simpler Human Rhythm
When she goes back to her family home in Okinawa, Higa gives herself permission to step away from work.
She looks at the sea and the sky, eats when she is hungry and sleeps when she is tired.
She has described that feeling as returning to a simpler, more basic version of being human.
Before the pandemic, she sometimes returned around five times a year, and in more recent interviews she has said she still goes back roughly four or five times a year.
Knowing that Okinawa is there gives her a place to reset while continuing a demanding career in Tokyo.
Her “Secret” Beach and Iriomote Island: Quiet Time in Nature
There is a beach in Okinawa that Higa loves so much she has described it as somewhere she does not want to tell anyone about.
She sometimes goes there alone and simply watches the sea for around two hours.
She has compared watching the rhythm of the tide to meditation.
In 2025, she also visited Iriomote Island, a place she had wanted to see for some time.
Surrounded by forest and sea, she described the experience as a return to something fundamental in herself.
For Higa, Okinawa’s natural landscape carries both familiarity and the feeling of stepping away from the role of “actress” for a while.
💡 She has a beach in Okinawa she would rather keep secret
Higa sometimes goes there alone and spends around two hours simply looking at the sea. Quiet nature itself becomes part of her reset.
Okinawa Helps Her Return to Zero; Overseas Travel Gives Her New Input
Overseas travel plays a different role in Higa’s life.
From her mid-30s onward, she began intentionally creating breaks between projects in consultation with her agency.
Sometimes she travels for one or two weeks, and on longer breaks she has taken trips lasting close to a month.
Her destinations have included Spain, Greece, Dubai and Vietnam.
Earlier in her life, she also traveled alone to New York and San Francisco.
In 2025, she revealed that she had visited Vietnam for the fourth time.
For Higa, overseas travel is a chance to absorb new cultures, food, people and scenery and then bring that fresh input back into her work.
Okinawa brings her back to zero; travel abroad fills her with something new.
That contrast says a great deal about the way she manages both rest and creative renewal.
💡 Okinawa is for “returning to zero”; overseas travel is for new input
Her hometown restores familiarity and simplicity, while travel abroad gives her new ideas, perspectives and energy.
Grandmother’s Home Cooking and Stories of Old Okinawa
Another precious part of returning to Okinawa is eating with her grandmother.
Higa once said that she used to eat before visiting her grandmother’s house. Over time, she began wondering how many more chances they would have to share those moments, so she started asking her grandmother to cook for her instead.
Meals naturally opened the door to deeper conversations about wartime experiences and everyday life in Okinawa long ago.
For Higa, even watching her grandmother enjoy preparing the food has become part of what makes those visits meaningful.
💡 Her grandmother’s home cooking matters more than a restaurant meal
Shared food becomes a way to hear family history and stories of Okinawa that might otherwise be lost.
The Eldest of Three Siblings: Her Mother, Father, Grandmother and Current Views on Marriage
Higa’s values are deeply connected to the family relationships she grew up with in Okinawa.
She is the eldest of three siblings.
Because both of her parents worked, she sometimes took on a motherly role at home, looking after her younger brother and sister.
That early sense of responsibility also fits with the independence she later showed when she moved to Tokyo alone at 19.
She and Her Mother Speak Honestly, While Her Father Balances the Family
Her mother is an energetic woman who built her own path while working for many years in beauty and aromatherapy.
Higa deeply respects her, and the two are also very similar in personality, which means they speak their minds openly to each other.
Her father often becomes the mediator when the two strong personalities clash.
Higa has even asked her father to help communicate things to her mother at times, creating a family dynamic that feels both candid and warm.
💡 Her father is often the family mediator
Higa and her mother are similar enough to be very direct with each other, while her father helps keep the balance.
At 40, Her Grandmother Is One of Her Life Role Models
Higa’s grandmother is more than a beloved family member who cooks and shares stories.
At 40, Higa has spoken about wanting to grow into an independent woman like her grandmother.
Her mother has influenced her approach to beauty and work, while her grandmother has become a model for how she hopes to live and age.
Family travel has also been important to her. She has taken her parents to Vietnam and traveled to Taiwan with her grandmother.
She has also talked about wanting to take her grandmother on a hot-spring trip, enjoying family time in ways that became possible as she grew older.
💡 Her role model at 40 is her grandmother
For Higa, aging well is connected to independence and the ability to continue living life on one’s own terms.
Marriage: Following Her Own Feelings and Letting Relationships Develop Naturally
Higa’s thoughts on marriage have also evolved from her 20s into her 40s.
In her late 20s, when many people around her were getting married, she remembers feeling that perhaps it was time for her to do the same.
Today, she places more importance on making a choice at a time that genuinely feels right for her.
In 2025, she said that she does not see herself as someone who necessarily wants to remain alone forever.
Her current outlook leaves room for a natural connection to develop and for two people to build a relationship in which both can feel comfortable.
As in beauty and lifestyle, she increasingly trusts her own sense of timing.
Life at 40: Decluttering 80% of Her Belongings and Entering a New “Season”
Manami Higa turned 40 on June 14, 2026.
It came the year after she marked her 20th anniversary as an actress, making it a particularly reflective period in her life.
In her first essay collection, Mata ne., she looks back on 25 themes including work, love, marriage, age and family.
She has said that reaching 40 made her want to put into words some of the difficult experiences and emotional wounds she had rarely shown publicly before.
At 19, She Moved from Okinawa to Tokyo with Around ¥200,000
Higa left Okinawa for Tokyo at 19.
She moved with the goal of becoming an actress and with roughly ¥200,000 in savings.
She later won the lead role in an NHK morning drama and went on to build a career lasting more than two decades.
Looking back, she says that through her 20s and 30s she felt a strong need to achieve results quickly and approached work with a constant sense of tension.
She kept setting herself challenges and goals, and that intense focus became one of the forces behind her long career.
💡 At 19, she moved to Tokyo with around ¥200,000
Her long career began with a bold decision to leave Okinawa and pursue acting independently.
After Letting Go of 80%, She Began Choosing Things She Could Love for 10 Years
Her transition into her 40s has also changed the way she lives at home.
Around two years before turning 40, a move prompted her to let go of roughly 80% of her belongings.
Reducing what she owned helped make it clearer which things she truly needed and genuinely loved.
Today, even with fashion, she sometimes asks whether something is the kind of item she could still love ten years from now.
The things around her have become objects she wants to live with for a long time, rather than simply possessions to accumulate.
That outlook closely mirrors her beauty philosophy.
In skincare, she chooses what she needs in the amount she needs. In everyday life, she chooses what she can imagine valuing for many years.
Both reflect the same growing ability to recognize what genuinely matters to her.
💡 She let go of around 80% — and now chooses what she can love for 10 years
Decluttering became more than an organizational project. It helped clarify the things, habits and values she wants to carry into her 40s.
Her 40s Are “Season Four”: Less Need to Impress, More Room to Enjoy
At 40, Higa says she feels less pressure to present herself as more impressive or more polished than she really feels.
That shift has also changed the way she works with other people.
On set, she now enjoys the sensibilities of her co-stars and staff and values more natural relationships.
She also sees the 40s as an interesting position between generations — old enough to learn from inspiring seniors while still receiving energy and new ideas from younger colleagues.
When she turned 40, Higa described the decade as a new beginning, almost like the start of “Season Four.”
After spending her 20s and 30s moving forward at full speed, she hopes to use the experience she has accumulated while enjoying life with more ease and flexibility.
For beauty, that means choosing lotion, oils or gels according to how her skin feels.
For movement, it might mean kickboxing, Pilates or personal training.
Some mornings begin with ten minutes of meditation, while painting can absorb her for four or five hours.
When she returns to Okinawa, she can spend time quietly in front of the sea. When she travels abroad, she welcomes unfamiliar culture and scenery.
She speaks honestly with her family, listens to her grandmother’s stories over home-cooked food, and looks toward becoming the kind of independent woman she sees in her grandmother.
The thread running through Manami Higa’s beauty and wellness habits is flexibility: paying attention to who she is now and choosing what fits that moment in her life.
She left Okinawa at 19 with around ¥200,000 and has spent more than 20 years building a career as an actress.
At 40, she still has the determination that carried her through those years, but it now exists alongside a deeper enjoyment of food, sleep, movement, travel, family and the freedom to choose what truly matters.
As she enters what she calls a new season, beauty, wellness and work are becoming even more closely aligned with the person she has grown into.
References
- VOCE — Manami Higa on skincare, facial lotion, hydration and fragrance at 40, 2026
- anan — body care, UV care, fitness and beauty philosophy
- ORICON NEWS — kickboxing, personal training, yoga and diet, 2021
- Wotopi — food, sleep, meditation and time with her grandmother, 2022
- TV Guide Web — childhood, marathon training, modeling and early beauty awareness
- TV Guide Web — painting and switching between work and personal time
- Inaka Gurashi Web — Okinawa, her family home, her mother, the sea and nature
- TOKYO FM — Okinawa, her favorite beach, overseas travel and time off, 2024
- ABC Magazine — Manami Higa’s visit to Iriomote Island, 2025
- Bunshun Online — Vietnam travel and finding new inspiration overseas, 2025
- Fuji TV — solo overseas travel, family trips and her relationship with her grandmother
- Bezzy — her mother, father, family relationships and changing values before 40, 2026
- STORY — beauty, life at 40 and letting go of the need to impress, 2026
- STORY — choosing things she can love for ten years and her lifestyle in her 40s, 2026
- ORICON NEWS — life at 40 and her grandmother as a role model, 2026
- Nikkan Sports — her first essay collection, life at 40 and her current outlook, 2026
- Nikkan Sports — turning 40 and the beginning of “Season Four,” 2026
