Kawai was born to a restaurant manager and actress Rie Kawai in Tokyo. She comes from a lineage of actors, including her grandmother and great-grandfather. Her older sister is Katsumi Fujita, who is an environmental planning designer, most recently contributing to the sign for Park Hyatt in Seoul, Korea. Her mother has been managing a small bar in Takadanobaba, an area close to Waseda University in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Kawai attended Jissen Women's Academy Junior High School and High School. She majored in English literature at the Department of Literature in Jissen Women's College. While attending elementary school, she belonged to Gekidan Komadori, a theater company. Her achievements there include television, soap operas, educational programs, commercials, radio soap operas, and foreign films. She temporarily stopped her activities because her middle school and high school outlawed outside activities relating to the entertainment industry. While attending college, she was scouted by a production company, resuming her show biz career.
Career
Her first drama feature role was in FNN's Onna mo Otoko mo naze Korinai. Her other major achievements as an actress include movies and theaters while also serving as reporter, newscaster, and host of various television programs. Kawai is best known for her role as Lamie in the 1992 Super Sentai series Kyōryū Sentai Zyuranger. While some people have distanced themselves from their role in the Super Sentai series, she appears to have fond memories of her role. As she appeared towards the middle of the series, she had a tough learning curve to overcome, but overcame it well. Kawai's official websites mentions several behind-the-scene experiences playing the role. These include confronting her fear of heights when she had to stand from the tip of a tall building the first time she appeared on screen and her embarrassment of turning into a monster when her character became a giant. For the Power Rangers series in the North America, Scorpina was credited as "Ami Kawai" the first time she appeared, but later credited to American voice actress, Wendee Lee. Scorpina was immensely popular among public viewers that when the production ran out of her footage, much speculation emerged as to her fate. Before the Power Rangers popularity she was already known in Europe and Latin America for her role in Kidou Keiji Jiban, although her role there was shared with Akemi Furukawa who played a similar secondary character. In recent years, Kawai has undergone a major image change. She does not have long black hair; instead, she has lightly dyed brown, short hair. She is not in the forefront of the entertainment industry in Japan, choosing to focus her time learning and teaching Japanese traditional dance, buyo. In late 2006, for her efforts, she was given the name Aya Fujima.
