17-year-old Tomohiro Ichikawa, winner of the Grand Prix in last year's JUNON Superboy Contest, will debut as an actor this summer. He has been added to the cast of the Fuji TV drama series "Otomen," which was just announced last month.

The show is an adaptation of Aya Kanno's manga of the same name about a popular kendo athlete in high school named Asuka (played by lead actor Masaki Okada) who secretly has feminine interests such as shojo manga and sewing. Ichikawa will play Asuka's classmate Kitora, a "mysterious" boy with a love of flowers.

In its 21 years, the JUNON Superboy Contest has launched the careers of many stars, such as Hideaki Ito, Teppei Koike, and Yuta Hiraoka. As a result, there are high expectations for Ichikawa's future, especially after being chosen from a pool of more than 15,000 contestants, the largest in the competition's history.