After AKB48, Yuko Oshima strips nude for Mika Ninagawa photo book “Nugiyagare”

AKB48’s Yuko Oshima like you’ve never seen her before, naked!

At least, that’s what the publisher is (almost) promising.

While she has never been averse to risque shoots, Yuko’s new photo book is particularly eyebrow-raising. By comparison, most AKB girls, even after graduating, remain fairly safe, though there are exceptions. Atsuko Maeda, for example, is attempting to forge a career in mainstream acting (good luck with that).

Over the summer the twenty-five-year-old Yuko has been stripping down for photographer Mika Ninagawa. The results are a photo book to be released in September, “Nugiyagare” (Strip off!). Some advance images have been released to the press to drum up hype (job done!). The shoot was in Ibiza. Ninagawa is known for her superficially colorful, semi-erotic output, including the film Helter Skelter, which had nude scenes for star Erika Sawajiri.

It is also curious that Ninagawa has chosen to use the “hand bra” pose, very similar to the controversial Tomomi Kasai photo that caused a whole book release to be canceled and derailed Tomomi’s career. Admittedly that one featured Tomomi having her modesty covered by a foreign child’s actual hands, but even so, that notorious image was the first thing we thought of when we saw Yuko’s latest photo.

Oshima announced her graduation from the idol super group at New Year and she formally graduated in June. This year she seems to be on a mission to vamp her image to something sexier.