Asano Atsuko, not to be confused by the writer of the same name, was born in Adachi in Northern Tokyo. Her parent ran a soba noodle restaurant. She auditioned for a remake called Eden No Umi at age fifteen and obtained a minor role. She had a credited role for the movie Fumiko To Hatsu the next year where she appeared nude. She delighted the male audience by also being naked in Play it, Boogie-Woogie. She quickly began acting in feature films and by 1983 had won a Best Supporting Actress Award from the Japan Academy Prize for Yokiroh. The 101st Proposal was a 1991 romantic serial, which was popular and may have heralded her peak fame. This side of the century, and since 2003, she began book reading and narrating Japanese folklore ('Kojiki' - oldest surviving chronicle in Japan) at various shrines and became an honourary professor at Tokyo's Kokugakuin University. She married writer Uozumi Tsutomu in 1983 and gave birth to a son in 1984. The son, Ouzumi Yu, is an NHK announcer. Like all Japanese celebrities she has endorsed a dozen corporate products. She is represented by Ikushima Kikaku Shitsu.