And she's back. Just weeks after she was forced to resign over a sex scandal, Akira Ogawa has won re-election as mayor of Maebashi in Gunma.
Ogawa resigned in late November after a series of love hotel trysts with an older, married city worker were exposed by a tabloid scoop.
The 42-year-old Ogawa tried to claim the hotel meetings with the 54-year-old subordinate were just that, meetings related to work, but the public was unconvinced, and both she and the unnamed senior male civil servant resigned their positions. We speculated at the time that her career was then over, but she clearly had ...
We are very sad to report the death of gravure idol Aoi Fujino from cancer at the age of 27.
Fujino officially retired on New Year's Eve with a handwritten note posted to social media. "Given my current condition, I'm in no position to say that I am fine or OK, even if I had to lie," she admitted. "Everything is getting worse, and it feels like anything could happen at any time. I'm fighting a daily battle with my body, which is at its limit."
After a fight against parapharyngeal cancer for several years, she died on January 5, according to an announcement made by her family four days ...
Tokyo Metropolitan Police has announced the arrest of Akira Awazu, a 51-year-old executive at an entertainment company based in Tokyo's Shinjuku ward, on suspicion of non-consensual sexual intercourse and violation of the Child Prostitution and Child Pornography Prohibition Act, for allegedly filming himself engaging in obscene acts with a 15-year-old junior high school girl and selling the footage as an adult video.
Awazu partially denies the charges, saying: "I though the girl was 18 years old." This was revealed in an interview with investigators, reports the Asahi Shimbun.
Awazu was ...
Ex-E-girls member Anna Ishii has a sex scene in the TV show Saint Love Survivors. She is shown having sex on all fours with her lover pounding her from behind as she grips the bed sheets. She is also shown enjoying her partner's embrace from behind while lying on her side.
This being mainstream Japanese TV, though, both actors are fully clothed throughout, which is about as realistic as it sounds. Nonetheless, the lingering closeups of Ishii's face as she feels her lover's thrusts into her body are very, very nice to watch. She has to cover her mouth to muffle her moans. Oh, we can imagine. ...
Nagisa Watanabe has bounced back from personal hardship to achieve major gravure success with her debut photo book, Horizon, which has now won the top prize at the Weekly Playboy Gravure japan Award 2025.
Watanabe commented: "When I received the offer to do the photo book, I remember repeatedly telling my editor, 'Are you sure you want me? It won't sell, you know?' I was filled with anxiety from my first overseas shoot to the release date, but I am filled with gratitude to all the staff who worked with me to create Horizon."
Watanabe is a former TV announcer who is generally assumed to be ...
The former AKB48 music idol Miki Nishino has announced her second pregnancy.
Nishino shocked fans by marrying the comedian Keiichi Yamamoto in 2022 when she was 23 years old. Yamamoto is 31 years older than her. She gave birth to their first child in October 2024. Their second is due in May.
Yamamoto looks particularly smug in a YouTube announcement video, though we guess you would do if you were 57 and your much-younger wife was still happy to let you impregnate her.
Further proof, if any were needed, that if you're funny, it doesn't matter what you look like, because you can always ...
Last year was full of gravure comebacks big and small. One of the more minor ones that nonetheless made us happy was Mayumi Yamanaka, now a mother of two and a mature, sensual 32.
In July 2025, she made a return to gravure after a few years away, appearing in a Weekly Playboy shoot and releasing a digital photo book. Mayumi has been in the industry for over two decades, having started as a junior idol when a teen. Her comeback proved once again that jukujo are the best.
She's also got a 30-year-old sister, Tomoe, who ostensibly retired in 2020.
That seems to have changed, though, since the ...
Gravure idol and cosplayer Minami Awa had a somewhat sad end to December. She posted on social media on the evening of December 23 that she was forced to cancel her meet-and-greet event due to a lack of attendance. In a move that some might interpret as highly Japanese, the 29-year-old offered an "unprecedented apology" for the cancelation.
Known for her curvy body and dyed hair, Awa wrote: "Apology. The handshaking event scheduled for today has been canceled due to zero people in line."
She posted a shot of herself sitting alone with a sad expression at the event venue, which had been ...
When the X AI assistant Grok recently started allowing users to manipulate any posted image, it immediately led to criticisms about copyright and consent. Inevitably, X was soon flooded with sexualized images of women, including of minors, based on entirely innocent pictures and selfies.
In Japan, the outrage has focused on several issues: personal artwork (since many independent artists use X), images of cosplayers (again, many freelance cosplayers use the platform), and the sexualization of a princess (who has little control of how her image appears in social media).
Given the size of the ...
We're cracking off 2026 with a belter of a story that is weird and wild, and perhaps could only happen in Tokyo.
On January 2, the Japanese Imperial Family always greets the public by coming onto a balcony to wave at the crowds, who are allowed into the palace grounds (which are usually closed).
The celebratory mood this year was soured, however, by the arrest of a man who stripped naked and tried to defecate in public in the grounds during the fifth and final balcony viewing.
The incident happened right at the front of the crowd, where there is the clearest view of the balcony, and it's ...
