[2][3] Hanai was born Yoshiko Shimizu in Osaka, Japan.

[1] As a child, she acted with the theatre troupes of Takeo Kawai and Rokurō Kitamura,[4] and gave her screen debut under the name of Reiko Shimizu in 1929.

[2][4] She entered the Nikkatsu film studio in 1931 and moved to J. O. Sutajio (later Toho) in 1937.

[1] In 1946, in opposition to the union strike at Toho, Yamada sided with the anti-unionist group "Jū hito no hata no kai" ("Society of the Flag of Ten"), which consisted of Setsuko Hara, Hideko Takamine, Isuzu Yamada and others,[5] and joined the Shintoho studio.

[1] During the 1950s, she also occasionally worked for Toho and other production companies, appearing in films of Mikio Naruse, Heinosuke Gosho, Kinuyo Tanaka and Kaneto Shindō.