The graduation of various leading members and the restrictions placed on live, in-person events by the pandemic have greatly reduced the presence of AKB48 and its sister groups in popular culture. The groups retain strong followings, of course, but the days when AKB dominated advertising and TV shows seem over.
As such, even the little scandals seem to pass us by. We missed that Yuka Suzuki (鈴木優香) was forced to graduate AKB48 last September due to an alleged romance (oh, the horror!) that first emerged in spring 2021.
Following her ignominious departure from AKB48, Yuka Suzuki ...
Given the wide-ranging discussions now taking place about introducing a new law with major implications for the porn industry in Japan, we wanted to share a related reform proposal from a few years ago.
Given that the potential new law is intended to protect young and vulnerable performers from coercion, increase performer rights, and give them more control over how their bodies are used, we wonder if anyone is taking note of what a former adult video actress suggested back in late 2018, when the initial coercion issue was in the spotlight.
Aged 43 at the time, the retired porn star Yuri ...
Rikako Inoue (井上理香子), a former member of the now-defunct idol group Fairies, is to make her porn debut as Yotsuha Kominato (小湊よつ葉).
Fairies disbanded in 2020, after which Inoue (who was a member of the group throughout its roughly nine-year run) nominally retired from the entertainment industry and became a company employee for two years.
However, the 25-year-old officially adopted the name Yotsuha Kominato in March this year and returned to gravure with a shoot for Weekly Playboy and tie-in 57-page photo book.
This month, she released the music video for a solo song, ...
Now this is what we call going out with a bang. Top Japanese adult video star Shoko Takahashi has retired from porn, as announced in April, and released her final title (MIDV-099) this month.
Of course, JAV is more than just videos, and Takasho has also put out an array of tie-in toys over the years, from onaholes to lubes and even vibrators.
To complement her last ever porn release, she has teamed up with top adult brand EXE to produce the Japanese Real Oppai Shoko Takahashi Breasts. Given that Takasho's greatest asset is her chest, and her unusual inverted nipples, this is a no-brainer ...
Yuka Kuramochi has returned to gravure with her first shoot since she gave birth to a child in 2021.
Kuramochi, who is married to a very successful esports player, chose to make a splash with her comeback. After all, landing a shoot with Yuka Kuramochi alone would be sure to shift copies, but Weekly Playboy elected for a whammy for its May 23 issue.
Joining Kuramochi are Jun Amaki, Fumina Suzuki, Saki Yanase, and Saki Suzuki. So we get five of the most voluptuous ladies in the industry, all in one shoot.
And what a shoot, as the preview images and the behind-the-scenes pics reveal! It's ...
One of the fascinations of this blog is with the afterlives of idols, whether music, gravure, or porn. What do the hordes of women do after their (frequently brief) moment in the spotlight is over?
Kizuna Sakura was active in adult video from 2014 to 2020. Now aged 32, she has begun the next stage of her left and career by opening a Niigata-themed ramen restaurant in December 2020 in Tokyo's Suginami ward.
She funded her enterprise through an ambitious crowdfunding campaign, which included such perks as a one-on-one talk and even a "fake wedding ceremony" and one-night stay at a hot spring ...
A reader recently chided us for not writing about the Yumi Sugimoto's return to gravure (though we did post pics on tumblr). The truth is, even with "gravure comebacks," there are simply too many idols to keep track of, let alone write about in detail on these digital pages.
But here's one comeback that is certainly worthy of note.
Yuka Hirata (38) made a very welcome return to our lives with her first Weekly Playboy gravure shoot in 14 years, first published in the March 19 issue of the magazine.
Now on the cusp of 40 and steeped in jukujo territory like a finely aged wine, the former ...
Loosely adapted from the book by Jake Adelstein, the HBO series Tokyo Vice features nude scenes with several actors, both American and Japanese.
Legion and Fargo star Rachel Keller is semi-nude in a scene where she gets changed with her back to the camera and a weirdly uninterested man in the room with her.
The former Japanese porn star Nanami Kawakami features in a pretty explicit and satisfying nude sex scene with the series lead Ansel Elgort. The 29-year-old Kawakami, who recently retired from adult video after a decade in the industry, is shown riding Elgort with some nice shots of ...
The high-profile Japanese adult video star Shoko Takahashi has announced on social media on April 1 that she will retire from porn.
This news came out a few days ago and somehow slipped under our radar until last night. Despite the timing of the announcement, Takahashi emphasized that it's not an April Fool's joke. She has also shot down rumors that she is pregnant or getting married. Instead, she says, her motivation for retiring was the health risk that a long porn career entails.
Her official retirement release (MIDV-099) was shot at the end of last year and will come out on May ...
You can be an acclaimed actor and also a sex symbol. That's perhaps not acknowledged enough, especially in Japan, where beauty inevitably tends to take precedence over talent.
There is quite a discrepancy between "serious actors" and the "stars," who are generally hired for their looks and fandom. Perhaps only a handful of lead actors are truly able to navigate both aspects of their fame.
Shizuka Ishibashi (石橋静河), the 27-year-old actor known for her roles in films like The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue Mika and 37 Seconds, has decided to take advantage of her ...
