AEW’s Mina Shirakawa: ‘I love American life so much’
Mina Shirakawa is loving the life she’s living in the United States.
This year, Shirakawa made the decision to sign with AEW full-time and move to America upon the expiration of her Stardom contract. She has featured in both AEW & ROH and is currently teaming with Toni Storm in the tournament to determine AEW’s inaugural Women’s Tag Team Champions.
A new episode of AEW Unrestricted debuted on Thursday with Shirakawa appearing as the guest. Shirakawa said she loves American life “so much” — except for really missing the quality of sushi they have in Japan.
“I love American life so much. I miss Japanese food, only Japanese food,” she said. “Because I love sushi so much and America has sushi, but no! Totally different from Japanese real sushi. So I miss Japanese sushi, but the American people are very kind to me. So I love American life so much. Every day, I encounter new things in here.”
Shirakawa said there are times where she gets lonely, but adopting a cat has helped her deal with that.
“Sometimes I feel alone in U.S. because this is not my country and I cannot speak English perfectly,” Shirakawa said. “So when I get home, I feel lonely: ‘Oh, I miss Japan.’ But at my house, he’s here. So it’s great. He is taking care of me.”
When asked what her dream in AEW is, Shirakawa said she would love to become a champion. Her parents are really strict and are not accepting of her wrestling career, so she would like to compete for a title at a big AEW pay-per-view and invite them to see that success.
The first-ever AEW Women’s Tag Team Champions will be crowned next week when Shirakawa & Storm face Willow Nightingale & Harley Cameron on the Winter is Coming edition of Dynamite. Shirakawa told AEW Unrestricted that her pairing with Storm feels very natural because they both have experience wrestling in Japan and understand what the other wants to do in the ring.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.