1990s star Harumi Inoue makes gravure comeback
Is it something in the water? Or in the early winter air? Because we seem to be witnessing a wave of comebacks in the gravure industry right now, from 2000s favorites Yuka Kosaka and Megumi Kagurazaka to real blast-from-the-pasts like Mayumi Yamazaki and Reiko Kato, returning after decades away.
The latest returning star is Harumi Inoue.
Now aged 51, the freshly divorced 1990s and 2000s star has made her first full gravure appearance in 26 years.
Debuting in 1991, Inoue was a biggie of the post-bubble years but met a Mexican man in Canada, and ultimately married the foreigner and had three kids with him in the late 2000s. The couple divorced in 2024. She currently lives in Kumamoto, southern Japan, where she is from.
At the height of her gravure career in mid- and late 1990s, she released six photo books, including a full-frontal nude one in 1999 shot by Kishin Shinoyama showing off her finely trimmed bush and shapely breasts, which were once insured for ¥100 million. This was during the peak of the hair nude photo book boom.
She also did nude scenes in the movie Freeze Me (2000). Around this time, she was sporting very short hair.
A recent Abema TV show featured the beautiful former star preparing for her “last” gravure shoot. She spent a month dieting and training to slim down.
By her previous standards, Inoue’s comeback shoot is tame. The most we see is a bit of her bare back, but perhaps she will start getting offers to do more provocative shoots again.
