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= Ai Haruna = Kenji Onishi (born July 21, 1972), known as Ai Haruna, is a Japanese transgender (ニューハーフ) TV personality, singer, actress, and CEO of Yukina Co.

Early life
Ai (born as Kenji Onishi, male) was born in Osaka, Japan. Ai’s mother is from Ikatacho, Ehime and her father is from Uwajima, Ehime. Her parents, who are now divorced, met in a municipal housing facility in Osaka. Other than her parents, Ai has one younger brother.

Ai (then, Kenji) had felt like a girl ever since she could remember. In elementary school, she (then, he) used to dress as a girl, and used to make appearances in imitation programs. On March 3rd 1983, she made an appearance at the national children’s song imitation grand prize (全日本ちびっこ歌まね大賞), sang “Kita no Hotaru” by Shinichi Mori and won the contest. On May 25th 1989, Ai made a debut with her single “chance” as Kenji Onishi.

Middle School Years
In her middle school years, she was bullied frequently which caused her to avoid going to school. In order to avoid the bullies, she either went to school as late as she could or sneaked out of school in the middle of the day to go to a cafe. She later joined a delinquent group as an errand-runner in exchange for protection. Joining this delinquent group lead to less studying and low grades. During her middle school years, she had already set her mind to the idea of becoming a transgender. There is an anecdote that Ai’s brother had gone through Ai’s closet out of curiosity and found colorful feminine underwear. This lead to Ai’s brother finding out that his brother (Ai) had wanted to become a girl, however, her brother did not inform their parents.

High School Years
For high school, Ai went to an all-boys school. During this time, she used to call the school pretending to be his mother and told the school to let Ai out early. She did so  in order to go meet the boy(s) he liked. After she dropped out of high school, she started working at Jodansakaba (冗談パブ), a transgender show pub in Shimbashi, Osaka. To this day, he makes guest appearances at Jodansakaba. In 1991, he started working at “Tootsie”, Osaka, another show pub.

Gender Transition
Ai suffered of gender dysphoria, and decided to come out to his father that he had been working as a transgender. In 1995, Ai had a gender reassignment surgery at Wada Keisei clinic, Osaka, with which the appearance of his genital became female, however, Ai decided to keep his name “Kenji Onishi” (a male name) until marriage out of filial piety. Originally, Ai used to be able to sing at the same pitch and key as other female idols, however, after extreme abuse of her voice, it became the deep, hoarse voice it is today.

The 1990s
In 1996, Ai appeared in a parody performance of “Ienaki ko”; “Tamanaki ko” as Suzu Aizawa. She also made special appearances on Ryutaro Kamioka’s show “Kamioka Ryutaro Ga Zubari!” (上岡龍太郎がズバリ！).

In 1996, Ai became a regular in “Kaiketsu Emi Channel” (快傑えみちゃんねる), a Kansai TV program with the stage name “Haruna Ai”. Ever since, Ai’s appearance as a beautiful transgender idol on TV programs, mainly imitation and transgender featuring programs, increased. Her appearances increased even more when she made an appearance on “Tensai ・Takeshi No Genki Ga Deru Terebi!!” (天才・たけしに元気が出るテレビ！！). Presented as an amateur, she also made an appearance on “Ucchan Nanchan No Hono No Challenger Kore Ga Dekitara 1,000,000 Yen!!” (ウッチャンナンチャン炎のチャレンジャー これができたら100万円！！).

In 1998, Ai moved to Tokyo as she became professionally affiliated with an office in Tokyo. She then made a debut as the world’s first transgender manager of DDT professional wrestling (DDTプロレスリング). During this time, the transgender trend in Japanese popular culture had gone down so Ai did not make many appearances as a TV personality, so she primarily made money by working at a snack bar and working as a race queen.

The 2000s
In 2002, Ai made an appearance on the annual show “Sanma&SMAP! Bijo To Yajuu No Christmas Special” (さんま&SMAP! 美女と野獣のクリスマススペシャル).

In 2007, Ai appeared in the Miss International Queen 2007, a transgender contest, and came in 4th place.

In 2008, Ai became professionally affiliated with Suns Entertainment (サンズエンタテインメント) and restarted her career as a TV personality.

In 2008, Ai made a break with her imitations of Aya Matsuura’s early days.

In 2009, Ai appeared in the Miss International Queen 2009, a transgender contest and the forewar contest “Angel of Talent Contest”. Ai became the first Japanese to come in first place in these contests and won $10,000.

The 2010s
In 2010, Ai made an appearance in the TV commercial of the foreign drama “Kyle XY”.

In 2010, Ai was chosen for the “24 HOUR TELEVISION “LOVE SAVES THE EARTH”” (24時間テレビ「愛は地球を救う」） marathon of 85 kilometers and became the first transgender to participate in the marathon.