Actress Mao Inoue will finally be making her long awaited return to acting! According to Yahoo! Mao will be playing the role of a female teacher in a Fuji TV drama series that will begin airing in October.

This will be Mao’s first appearance in a drama series since the 2015 Taiga drama “Hanamoyu”. After the release of “Hanamoyu” Mao did not sign on to appear in many projects, her sole role being a voice acting spot in the CGI children’s movie Rudolf the Black Cat. The same month the movie was released Mao announced that she would be parting ways with her agency “Seventh Avenue”, whom she belonged to since the start of her career as a child actress.

Even though Mao signed to another agency, tabloids had a field day using this as evidence that Mao was ready to settle down and perhaps marry her longtime rumored boyfriend Jun Matsumoto, member of the Johnny’s group Arashi. No marriage announcement was made and Mao continued to keep a low profile. She would occasionally be tracked down by paparazzi who would ask her about Jun, only for her to dodge the question.

The drama series is tentatively titled “Tomorrow’s Promise”, and will deal with the heavy issue of suicide among high school students. It’s rumored that Yukie Nakama will also be starring in the drama series.

Mao debuted at 1992 in the drama series “Gakko ga Abunai!”, she was only five years old! Her breakthrough came with the 1999 TBS drama series “Kids War: Zaken na yo“. Eventually Mao went on to star in a remake of “Hana Yori Dango” in 2005 which further launched her career to new heights. Mao continued to appear in multiple acclaimed and successful projects including “Oba: The Last Samurai”, “Ohisama”, and “Rebirth” cementing her status as one of Japan’s top actresses.

(via Yahoo!)