Kobayashi Mao is a Japanese actress and news anchor. She is perhaps best known for her appearances on Fuji TV as a weathercaster and on News Zero as a co-anchor, but she has also played several supporting roles in Japanese dramas and movies. Mao was born in Ojiya, Niigata and is a graduate of the department of psychology at Sophia University. She has an older sister named Maya who is also a newscaster and actress. They are both represented by the Cent FORCE talent agency. On November 19, 2009, Mao married kabuki actor Ichikawa Ebizo XI and gave birth to their daughter, Reika, in 2011 and son, Kangen, in 2013. Since then she has taken time off from her media roles to focus on her family. Kobayashi was diagnosed with breast cancer in October 2014 but kept her illness a secret. On 9 June 2016, her husband announced her condition at a press conference after the tabloid, Sports Hochi, ran a front-page scoop about her ordeal.[8] The cancer had reached stage four and spread to her bones and lungs. In November 2016, the BBC announced that she was one of the BBC's '100 Women 2016' — a list of inspirational and influential women for 2016 — after she started a blog about her illness and how she was dealing with it. Titled 'Kokoro', it became one of the most popular blogs in Japan. Kobayashi died of cancer on 22 June 2017. Watch drama online for free.