Mimura announces a change in her stage name to Mimura Rie

Mimura announced through her official website on 27 March 2018 that she will change her stage name from Mimura to Mimura Rie (美村里江). According to Mimura, she had used this name when she made her debut because she is an avid fan of the cartoon character Mimura-neesan in "Moomins" and wanted to boost awareness of the latter. Although it may seem that her name change is a sudden decision, this had actually been on her mind for several years. She finally decided to discuss this with her agency last year and got the approval to do so after the number of strokes in her new name was assessed by fortune-telling professionals.

In her statement, Mimura cited 3 main reasons for what triggered this decision. First of all, Mimura-neesan has already become very well-known by now. Secondly, when she saw her name in the cast line-up of her Taiga drama script which stood out for being the only one in Katakana script, she came to realise how important her original Japanese name is. Last but not least, she wanted to make her screen persona and her true self become almost equal. As such, she used her real name Rie as the first name while retaining the name she had been using all this while as her surname to come up with this new stage name. Mimura reassured everyone that there was no conflict with her agency with regard to this name change and that there was nothing happening in her private life which led to this.

Sources: Oricon / Nikkansports