Mirai Nagasu - Personal Life

Personal Life

Nagasu was born in Montebello, Los Angeles County, California and raised in Arcadia, California. Nagasu's parents own Restaurant Kiyosuzu, a Japanese sushi restaurant in Arcadia. They are immigrants from Japan in the general sense of the word, but are not U.S. citizens. Their daughter has dual citizenship of the United States and Japan and must choose one before her 22nd birthday because Japan does not allow dual citizenship for adults 22 or older. Nagasu speaks a mixture of Japanese and English at home with her parents. Her mother, Ikuko, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in the fall of 2009. Mirai (未来) means "future" in Japanese, while her last name is written as 長洲 in kanji.

Nagasu was a recipient of a Michael Weiss Foundation scholarship, which is for young American figure skaters.

Nagasu graduated from Foothills Middle School in the spring of 2007 and entered Arcadia High School in the fall of 2007. In 2009, she began attending an online high school. She graduated from the California Connections Academy in June 2011 and was accepted into the University of California, Irvine but said the commute was not feasible.

Nagasu is well known in Japan. In the fall of 2007, after winning her two Junior Grand Prix events, she took part in the International Counter Match "made for television" event in Japan. There, Nagasu was part of Team USA and competed against Team Japan. She was also hired as a television commentator in Japanese for Fuji TV during the 2009 World Championships, which were held in Los Angeles.

She admires Kim Yu-Na, Michelle Kwan and Mao Asada.