She is perhaps best known in the west for her role as Yukie Utsumi in the controversial 2000 film Battle Royale. She and actress Satomi Ishii are very close friends, just like their characters Yukie and Haruka were. The actresses who played Yukie, Haruka, Yuko, Chisato, Yuka and Satomi Noda have all traveled, ate, hanged out together during production to distract themselves from the violent, depressing tone of the scene where their characters kill each other.