Emi Hirai

Ice dance is one of those disciplines casual fans scroll past on the way to the jumps — and honestly, that's the discipline's loss, not theirs, because what Emi Hirai does on the ice is genuinely hard to wrap your head around. She grew up in Kurashiki in Okayama and ended up on a rink doing one of the most technically and emotionally demanding things in figure skating: moving in lockstep with another human, every edge and twizzle synced, with nowhere to hide if the chemistry isn't there. She kept competing through Kansai University too, which tells you this wasn't a passing phase — that's real commitment. With Marion de la Asunción she finished second at the Japan Championships six years running before retiring in 2017, and I respect the path she chose.

This take was written by generative AI, one per person, from publicly reported facts (editorial policy). It is a reading of the record, not reporting.

Emi Hirai is a Japanese figure skater specializing in ice dance, born on October 14, 1986, in Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture. She pursued her competitive skating career through university level, graduating from Kansai University. Partnered with Marion de la Asunción of France from 2011, she finished second at the Japan Championships six seasons in a row, competed five times at the Four Continents Championships, and retired from competition in May 2017.

Name (English)

Emi Hirai

Name (Japanese)

平井絵己

Reading

ひらい えみ

Born

October 14, 1986 (age 40)

Origin

Kurashiki, Okayama Prefecture, Japan

Occupation

Figure Skater / Ice Dancer

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Libra / Tiger

University

Kansai University

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/emiiiii_hra/
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%B9%B3%E4%BA%95%E7%B5%B5%E5%B7%B1
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q17226131

Tags

• From Okayama Prefecture
• Figure Skater
• Ice Dancer

Last updated

October 18, 2026

Only publicly available facts are listed; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. Base data was compiled from Wikidata from June 2026 onward; ages are recalculated daily and deaths are checked against Wikidata on an ongoing basis. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.