Hanna Sakuragi on US Entry Denial, Layoff and Her Cinderella Audition

I’m Sakura Hagi, twenty-three years old. I moved up to Tokyo from Aomori last year.

Right now, due to one stroke of bad luck after another, I’ve ended up unemployed, but for the first time I’ve been able to stand here today at this starting line.

I was accepted for an overseas internship and even set off, but…

I was denied entry to America, and when I joined a staffing agency for foreign workers, I was laid off in less than a year because they said we were in the red.

At that time, I happened to see the Cinderella casting call, and I felt it was a sign telling me to do what I truly want to do in my life.

There is a phrase I like, “ningen banji saiō ga uma.”

It means you never know when good luck or bad luck will turn, so you should not get carried away by each high and low.

I want an ordinary person like me to become someone special like all of you,

and prove my worth in the nightlife world, where you cannot fake anything.

Thank you very much.

You look kind of like a job hunter in a recruitment suit.

True.

She’s a bit different from the Cinderellas who have come so far, the image is a little different.

The vibe is different, though.