Hira Takehiro (28) is a member of the “elite” in more ways than one. The son of actors Hira Mikijiro (69) and Sakuma Yoshiko (64), he went to the US at the age of 15 to study at Brown University and later graduate school at Columbia University. After returning to Japan, he entered the booming Internet company Softbank. But last year, he gave all that up to turn to acting. He appeared on stage in a show featuring his parents, who had divorced 18 years earlier, and in a production of King Lear. This week, he makes his TV debut alongside Todai graduate Kikukawa Rei in the new TBS drama “Loved to Love”. Watch out for this guy!