6 months past legal drinking age, actress Kanna Hashimoto reveals binge drinking

On Feb 20, 2019, popular Japanese actress Kanna Hashimoto turned 20 and became a legal adult. In the last few years, she has been busy appearing on variety shows and dramas on TV as well as acting in films, many of which have been adaptations of manga and anime, such as "Assassination Classroom" (2015) "Gintama" (2017) and the upcoming "Kaguyama-sama: Love is War" (2019).

However, in the last six months, it would seem that the former idol and singer once described as "beyond angelic" has behaved in a somewhat less-than-angelic manner when it comes to enjoying her newly found liberties as an adult.

In her appearance on the TBS variety show 『櫻井・有吉THE夜会』(Sakurai Ariyoshi The Dangerous Night) on Aug 29, Hashimoto revealed she had been drinking every day since her birthday. At first, audiences may have imagined "a drink a day" but her manager revealed that her drinking was more serious than that.

Describing an episode on location in Germany, her manager said: "She went in (the bar) in the daytime and kept downing German beers until closing time."

Any hope that this was an isolated episode disappeared when Hashimoto casually described her own drinking habits, saying: "For me, a 'liver-rest day' is when I have about two drinks. Basically, I feel like drinking after I finish work."

This prompted actress and singer Wakako Shimazaki, 46, who was also a guest on the show, to exclaim: "Wait a minute, you're 20! I could understand if you were in your 30s but..."

In another part of the show, Hashimoto went to get her first-ever allergy test. Fortunately, her results came back negative for all allergies, but the report was far from rosy.

As it turns out, she had worryingly high levels of bad cholesterol. The doctor dispensed a harsh admonition to the young actress, saying that her lack of sleep, unhealthy eating habits and heavy drinking were to blame. He then added: "If you continue like this, you'll run the risk of arteriosclerosis and suffering a stroke or a coronary infarction. Basically, you need to worry about the same things middle-aged men do in our society."

After viewing the footage, Hashimoto admitted to the hosts on the set: "I really need to change my unhealthy eating habits."

On Twitter, viewers were surprised and supportive.

"Kanna-chan, you're really busy so please rest properly when you're tired." "You must have stress at work and alcohol helps to relieve that so it must be hard to give it up." "I can't believe you have the same health concerns as middle-aged men..." Fans who want Hashimoto to continue enjoying her active lifestyle and her flourishing career are understandably concerned for her health. Hopefully she'll make good on her promise to change her eating habits, not to mention her concept of a "liver-rest day."