Earlier this year, we wrote about the surprise yet very, very welcome return to gravure of two major stars now in their late thirties: Aya Ueto and Haruka Ayase. Indeed, as the likes of Yoko Kumada amply demonstrate, you can continue a career in gravure into your forties. While the industry is dominated by ladies in their twenties or late teens, we like to see veterans and survivors in there, and love a good comeback story. But even we were surprised by the return of Erika Yamakawa to gravure after a 20-year break. Now aged 42 and the mother of two children, the model made her gravure ...

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The former AKB48 idol Satomi Kaneko officially retired last year and we thought it was the last we would see of her. How wrong we are. Today comes the happy news that Satomi Kaneko is to make her porn debut with the Muteki label -- which specializes in such industry crossover debuts -- and under the name Kiho Kanematsu (金松季歩). It is common, often for contractual reasons, for idols to change their professional name when transition into porn, or even just when switching management agencies. Kaneko/Kanematsu announced her new professional name about a week ago, along with a new shoot ...

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The actress and mature gravure idol Mami Yamasaki is to release her tenth and final photo book. The photo book, Camellia, will come out in Japan on April 15 from Shogakukan. As announced on February 19, the publication will mark her retirement from gravure after a 20-year career. Now aged 38 and still unmarried, Mami Yamasaki has got more alluring with age -- and indulged in more explicit photo shoots. She seemed to embrace entering her thirties as the opportunity to strip off for semi-nude shoots. Mami Yamasaki has aged like a fine wine, getting sexier the older she gets. ...

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The tabloids are full of reports that the gravure idol Risa Yukihira has been dating the pop singer Kei Inoo of Hey! Say! JUMP for perhaps as long as two years. The story was first broken by daily sports newspaper Sports Nippon (Sponichi), whose reporters have spotted the pair visiting each other's homes. The past romantic partners of 33-year-old Kei Inoo, who graduated from the prestigious Meiji University, include retired porn star Kirara Asuka and Japanese announcer and model Misato Ugaki. Risa Yukihira is one of the most popular gravure idols right now. With her pale skin and alluring ...

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In mid-January, we wrote about the pleasant surprise that was actress and model Haruka Ayase's return to gravure. Well, this seems to be a bit of a trend right now: actresses and models who were huge in the 2000s and 2010s are going back to their gravure roots. Aya Ueto has done a cover shoot for the February 27 issue of Flash, which is now on sale. Though she made her debut as an actress in the year 2000, Ueto worked in gravure before she became a big mainstream star, including as a junior idol. Ueto now has three children, having giving birth to her most recent one last year, and while ...

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The insanely popular Japanese porn star Eimi Fukada was spotted on a date at a ramen restaurant in late 2023 with Junnosuke Taguchi, who has also been spotted by reporters coming in and out of her home. Sporting dyed-blonde hair, Taguchi is not the former KAT-TUN member of the same name but a 31-year-old cosmetic surgeon who works at a clinic in Roppongi. As seems to be the case with everyone these days, he also has a successful sideline as a YouTuber. They have been dating for around a year and a half, according to a recent report in Weekly Flash, and have even been on a trip to Vietnam ...

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In Japan, voice actresses are as popular as music idols, fashion models, and gravure idols. Despite only displaying their vocal talents on the screen, fans adore these ladies, and it's why so many of them have developed lucrative side lines in event appearances and photo books. Rikako Aida (逢田梨香子) is one examples of a voice actress. Previously known by the stage name Rikako Ito, she is now 31 years old and entering jukujo territory (despite her eternally youthful elfin looks, but this hasn't diminished her fandom. Also a singer, Aida is is best know for her role as Riko ...

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Of all the points of entry into gravure, we are well used to women side-stepping into the industry from other jobs like music idols, fashion models, ring girls, race queens, and convention booth companions. But geisha?! Rino (莉乃) is a 22-year-old from Shizuoka who moved to Kyoto at 16 to become a maiko, or apprentice geisha. She worked in the old capital as a maiko in the Miyagawacho district until the age of 20. She has now made her debut in the rather less glamorous but more modern world of gravure with a shoot for Weekly Friday. And in a very competitive industry in which new idols ...

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We always like to welcome back old friends at Tokyo Kinky. Haruka Ayase's return to gravure, while quite modest, recently put a big smile on our faces. And so it is with a little squeal of glee that we greet the gravure comeback of Miwako Kakei. The Terrace House alum was a big gravure idol in the mid-2010s but has been content to plow a trade as a regular model, celebrity, and actress in more recent times. (Her acting gigs have particularly picked up in the past few years, especially for TV dramas.) For whatever the reason, she has gone back to what she was originally good at, and is ...

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Late last year, we showcased the ageless miracle that is Fumie Nakajima, who looks amazing in swimwear even in her mid-fifties. As they mature, Japanese improve with age like a fine wine. A couple of cases in point: Yoko Kumada and Sayaka Isoyama, who both look stunning in their forties. If further proof was needed, here's another example. Making her debut way back in 1994, the gravure idol Yuka Sawachi (沢地優佳) has managed to survived in a competitive industry in which idols are often discarded after a few months of shoots for the weeklies. She actually retired in 2007 and then ...

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