TOKYO (TR) – For years, Kumiko Funayama, nicknamed “Kumikki,” was energetic as a mannequin and entertainer, primarily showing in magazines equivalent to Popteen. She is now an entrepreneur, having based her personal enterprise.
Getting thus far was an immense problem because the highway to success was a bumpy trip, she tells Chanto Web (June 4).
In 2008, on the age of 17, she made her debut as a mannequin. Though many thought she was a shining star on this planet of glamor, her private life was shrouded in gloom on account of her household’s immense debt.
“My father was a self-employed construction worker, and lived through the bubble economy,” she says. “He was a very earnest man who worked hard at his job and was very prosperous at times, but it seems that his business started to decline when I was in the second grade of elementary school. He also had a series of misfortunes, such as being deceived by people he trusted. In just a few years he ended up in debt of 40 million yen.
Due to financial difficulties, there were times when water and electricity were cut off at the family’s home.
“When the water was cut off, I would grab a water bottle and go to the park or a nearby shopping mall to get water,” Funayama says. “When the electricity was cut while my older brother was preparing for entrance exams, I would light a candle.”
Her older brother was restricted so far as highschool selections as a result of entrance examination charges and tuition charges.
“I was in my impressionable years in the upper grades of elementary school and junior high school. I was also bullied because I was poor,” she says. “We couldn’t pay the school lunch fees, and there were rumors in class, and classmates who saw our house said, ‘It’s a rundown house.’”
Her mom held robust.
“She is a cheerful person,” Funayama tells Chanto Web. “So the atmosphere in the house was never gloomy. She would often cheer up the family by saying, ‘It’s tough now, but I’m sure we’ll pay it off someday and be able to go back to normal life, so let’s do our best!’”
Her father was workaholic.
“Work took priority,” she says, “so the only time I spent time with my father when I was little was during long holidays, like summer vacation. My father had an ideal of what a daughter should be like, like a good student, but when I became a middle school student, I became interested in fashion and started wearing gyaru makeup.”
At this time, her father was hampered by the debt.
“He couldn’t accept that I was getting further and further away from my ideal,” she says. “I remember him getting irritated with me because I wasn’t doing what he wanted, and being strict with me. My phone was often confiscated, and I even had a fight where my flip phone got broken about four times.”
Their neighbors helped.
“They would often invite me over to their house and treat me to a meal,” she says. “Being exposed to such kindness made me feel positive at the time, and I think the hungry spirit I felt at that time is an experience that has made me who I am today. I experienced firsthand that humans cannot do anything alone, and it was around this time that I realized that parents are not perfect either.”
To elaborate, she provides, “When we are children, we think that our parents are strong and perfect. But even parents can get depressed, cry, and become mentally weak if they are in a difficult situation. I used to think that parents were the natural people who could ask their children for favors when they were in trouble, but that’s not really the case. I learned that it’s important to support each other when we’re in trouble and do what we can to help each other out as my life has changed.
“This is something I feel now that I have children myself, ages 3 and 7 months. Just like children, parents are also human beings. It’s not their place to lord it over their children and tell them things. When I’m in trouble, I don’t overreach myself and ask my older child for help, and when I get too angry, I make sure to apologize to my children properly.”
Funayama paid off the household’s debut shortly after her debut. She used her earnings as a mannequin.
“I think that while we were in debt, we were somehow unsettled and it was not a situation where any of us in the family could relax,” she says. “By paying off the debt, the imprecise feeling of not having the ability to see the long run disappeared, and I feel that I used to be in a position to take away the minimal quantity of tension.
Funayama’s well being deteriorated after her modeling debut, which led her to reexamine her lifestyle. She has now launched a skincare model known as Herz Skin. As a consequence, she has made the transition from gyaru mannequin to enterprise proprietor.