Karina Maruyama

I'll be honest, it took me a second to reconcile the two Karina Maruyamas in my head. These days I mostly know her as the loud, gloriously unfiltered presence on Japanese variety TV, the one who derails a panel with some out-of-nowhere comment and laughs like the world owes her nothing. But before all that she was an actual elite athlete, a forward for Nadeshiko Japan competing on the world stage, trained up at Nippon Sport Science University. And once you know that, the goofy energy stops reading as a bit and starts reading as earned. There's a specific kind of brightness that comes from people who've put in the grueling, unglamorous work, and she's got it in spades. The Tokyo kid who ran herself ragged on the pitch now just makes everyone around her feel lighter. I find her genuinely good company.

Karina Maruyama (born March 26, 1983) is a Japanese soccer player from Ota, Tokyo. She attended Nippon Sport Science University and represented Japan as a member of the Nadeshiko Japan women's national team. Known for her energetic playing style on the pitch, she has also become a recognizable television personality in Japan.

Name (English)

Karina Maruyama

Name (Japanese)

丸山桂里奈

Reading

まるやま かりな

Born

March 26, 1983 (age 43)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Aries / Boar (Inoshishi)

Origin

Ota, Tokyo, Japan

Occupation

Soccer player

University

Nippon Sport Science University

Motto

Private

• Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/karinamaruyama/
• Xhttps://x.com/marukarichan11
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%B8%E5%B1%B1%E6%A1%82%E9%87%8C%E5%A5%88

Tags

• From Tokyo
• Soccer player

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.