Ai Otsuka (大塚 愛, Ōtsuka Ai, born September 9, 1982) is a female Japanese pop singer-songwriter and pianist from Osaka, Osaka Prefecture, Japan. She is best-known for her 2003/2004 hit Sakuranbo, which stayed in the Top 200 Oricon Weekly Singles Chart for 101 weeks.
Ai Otsuka is signed to record label Avex Trax, one of the biggest record labels in Japan and one of the largest independent record labels in the world, which also manages other high-profile artists like Ayumi Hamasaki, Kumi Koda, Sweetbox, BoA, Namie Amuro, Ami Suzuki, Hitomi Shimatani, and Every Little Thing. She is qualified to teach kindergarten, and has said she will become a kindergarten teacher if her singing career collapses.
Ai (愛, Ai) means love, hence the use of the word "love" in much of her work. She also plays on the pun of Ai sounding like the English word "I".
