Model Youn-a remarries, chooses Yakuza-connected AKB48 businessman Kotaro Shiba

Korean-born model Youn-a (28) is marrying again this autumn, just over a year after divorcing a Korean businessman.

Her new partner and future husband is a Kotaro Shiba (40), head of office48, an agency connected to the company behind AKB48, AKS.

So far, not so Tokyo Kinky, you might think, though Youn-a is a bit of a hottie. Perhaps she will be appearing in the idol group in the future? That would be a real reason to listen to their “music” at last…

However, Kotaro Shiba is rumored to be connected to the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza, as we previously reported.

Entertainment people are worried that Youn-a’s choice of new husband will damage her clean reputation (she’s the kind of model who appears in very middle-class fashion magazines), since Shiba’s Yakuza connections have been heavily publicized in the tabloids.

Shiba has a checkered past, with a failed beauty salon on his resume before he got involved with black market financial services that are borderline extortion. He is also said to have his band in underground casinos and pachinko. And it was through casino gambling that he apparently met the other important businessmen in AKB, like Yasushi Akimoto. The money that Shiba subsequently invested in the AKB ventures is rumored to be funds gained from illegal enterprises.

While office48 responded angrily to these tabloid reports, it did not sue or take action against the magazine that originally published them.

Does Youn-a know about her partner’s history?!