Hitomi Shimatani (????? Shimatani Hitomi), born September 4, 1980, is a Japanese pop singer and actress on the avex trax label. At the age of 17, when she was still in high school, Shimatani decided to pursue a singing career, and went to a casting at the Japan Audition 1997, hosted by the music label avex trax. She heard that they were looking for young girls with exceptional singing talent. Shimatani was chosen from about 200,000 other girls who were casted, and she got a contract with avex. Shimatani wanted to finish her studies, and Avex agreed with her, as long as she took singing classes at the same time, and they made a deal.