Kyoko Kano (叶 恭子, Kanō Kyōko) and Mika Kano (叶 美香, Kanō Mika), known collectively as the Kano sisters (叶姉妹, Kanō shimai), are Japanese celebrities.

The Kano Sisters say they are half-sisters with different mothers. There is also a third "sister" who initially made appearances with the two. She eventually withdrew from the scene, according to industry sources, and now only intermittently appears with them.^[1] The lack of resemblance between them as well as their refusal to answer any questions about their age (even their reported ages are speculation) or past fuels speculation the three are not sisters at all, but just another group of tarento with a carefully crafted gimmick.^[2]

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Long before "The Hiltons" or "The Kardashians" got famous for being famous, Japan had been fascinated by "The Kano Sisters".

In 1997, the oldest sister Kyoko debuted in 25ans, an upscale women's fashion magazine, together with her real (younger) sister H.K. as one of its "supaa dokusha" (super readers). This success led to various TV offers. Real sister H.K. did not seek a life in the spot light, which led to great resentment and disappointment by Kyoko and ended in a family feud in 2007.

Preferring a role behind the scene, real sister H.K. eventually moved abroad and made a career - away from the Japanese spotlights - in Beauty, High Jewelry and exclusive F&B concepts.^{[citation needed]}

Enjoying the newly found fame, Kyoko carefully crafted a story of "half-sister" Mika. Since then Kyoko and Mika are known as "Kano Shimai". Mika, a Beauty Queen at age 19, had been seeking fame for a long time. With the money coming from Kyoko's family, both "sisters" appearing regularly on Japanese TV. Their main claim to fame is their outrageous sense of style, involving highly revealing clothes, flashy jewelry, and jet-set travel. Real sister H.K. moved abroad and made a career - away from the Japanese spotlights - in Beauty, High Jewelry and exclusive F&B concepts.^[1]

Apart from frequent television appearances, they market a series of exercise videos, erotic calendars, collectible fashion cards^[3] and coffee-table pictorials, featuring the two mostly naked.^[4] Japanese toy maker Takara Co. began to sell 30-centimeter-high dolls modeled after the Kano sisters, called Kano Sisters' Gorgeous Dolls, in March 2002. The dolls were priced at 19,800 yen a pair.^[5]

The sisters are frequently invited to movie premieres, film festivals, and award ceremonies.^{[citation needed]} Self-described "Lifestyle Consultants," Japanese women pay to attend Kano seminars to hear their advice on topics such as relationships and makeup.^[6]

On 3 April 2006, the Kano sisters published a collection of nude artistic photographs in a book entitled Sweet Goddess. Posing in a revealing style known in Japanese as "hea nuudo", or "hair nude," a term for nude photographs in which a woman's pubic hair is visible, the photographs were taken by Kyoko Kano with modeling by Mika Kano. Sweet Goddess was reported to be among the first books to break this unwritten post-war publication rule.^[7]Sweet Goddess was listed as a bestseller for several months.^[8] The Kano sisters released a similar pictorial collection entitled Sweet Goddess 2 on 1 November 2006.

In 2009, the Kano sisters had a 10-episode CGI anime series called Abunai Sisters: Koko & Mika produced by Production I.G which aired on the Japanese channel AT-X, but it was cancelled after two episodes had aired. The rest of the series was released on DVD. The series was in English with Japanese subtitles.^[9][10]

Kyoko Kano

• Millennium Muse (in Japanese). Tokyo: Gentosha. 2000. ISBN 4-87728-347-1.

• Kanō Kyōko (2006). Toriorizumu (in Japanese). Tokyo: Shogakkan. ISBN 4-09-396471-8.

• Super Beauty: Love & Sex (in Japanese). Tokyo: Shogakkan. 2007. ISBN 978-4-09-379748-1.

• List of Japanese celebrities
• List of Japanese people