We love a good gravure comeback.
After 37-year-old Ami Tokito's return to gravure, Reiko Kato's reappearance after many years away, and Mayumi Yamanaka's comeback after marrying and having two kids, now comes Mari Okamoto.
Best known as an impersonator who could do a good impression of Ryoko Hirosue (whom she resembles quite strikingly) and who also made past forays into gravure, Okamoto married a music producer in 2015 and had a child, but they divorced in 2018. She remarried a Saitama politician in December 2023, though divorced again the following year.
What is it about divorced models ...
Erika Minatogawa is riding the wave of scandal over her arrest on a drug charge earlier this year to launch a gravure career.
The so-called 32-year-old "Minato girl" and former race queen (grid girl), whose real name is Miho Okumoto, appears in the September 2 issue of Flash and has also released a digital photo book.
The eight-page semi-nude shoot features the alluring model with an H cup playing up to her self-professed femme fatale and party girl image.
Here are some sizzling highlights from the shoot.
Back in May, the tabloids were filled with salacious reports about ...
Some female celebrities are vampires. They must be, otherwise how else do the likes of Ayaka Haruse, Kyoko Fukada, and Asami Kumakiri seem never to age even as they enter their forties?
One of Japan's top jukujo hotties is Sayaka Isoyama, known for her curvy charms and simple personality.
Though her gravure peak is long behind her and she makes her living primarily now as a TV celebrity and actress, the 41-year-old is releasing a new photo book in October to mark 25 years of working in the entertainment industry. It was shot in location in Cairns, Australia.
As a promotion, she appears ...
The former NHK announcer Anna Nakagawa has made her gravure debut with a splashy cover shoot for Weekly Playboy.
The 31-year-old quit the public broadcaster in March and has been attached to major talent agency Horipro since April. She clearly hopes to take her career in a whole new direction.
This is her first gravure shoot, done on location in Odawara and at a studio in Tokyo. Weekly Playboy also released a 100-page digital photo book to accompany the issue, which went on sale on Monday.
Though the shoot is relatively conservative by gravure standards, Nakagawa is clearly ...
Not all heroes wear capes and not all gravure idols enter the industry through the usual agency and competition route.
And while we are used to certain other celebrities moonlighting in gravure, especially music idols, but also wrestlers, actresses, fashion models, and sports athletes, it is relatively rare for a figure skater to dabble.
But Marin Honda is a rare thing indeed, as her gravure debut impressively demonstrates.
The 24-year-old showed off her slinky, toned body and cute girl-next-door beauty in a great series of pics that would make many music idols green with envy.
Her ...
Kanna Seto burst onto the Japanese adult video scene late last year and quickly made a huge impression with her girl-next-door face, pale skin, slim body, and huge breasts. It is a formidable combination and her debut attracted some of the biggest online attention we have seen in a long while.
Seto's career has gone from strength to strength, releasing 12 titles since then from S1 No. One Style and building a following both in Japan and in other parts of Asia.
The 21-year-old's first photo book came out from Shogakukan in January and she has at least three more AV titles scheduled ...
This weekend is Comiket 106, the latest edition of Japan's largest cosplay and doujinshi event held at Tokyo Big Sight.
But it's also mid-August in Tokyo, which is hot, humid, and very sweaty. Comiket gets insanely crowded and also tends to attract a lot of otaku, who do not have the best reputation when it comes to personal hygiene.
This combination of seasonal climate and demographic has reached such a serious level that exhibitors are choosing to ask fans to make more of an effort.
Japan's most famous and successful cosplayer, Enako, has issued a plea for fans to attend Comiket only ...
Right now, gravure feels a bit like a battle between the nearly 40-year-olds, all vying to outdo each other.
Or it could be that for all the sweet charms of fresh-faced young newbies like Hina Kikuchi, Cocoro Toyoshima, Aika Sawaguchi, Ina Enohara, and Yuzuha Hongo, these older models and idols just make better stories. (And to be frank, as we get older, we can't help finding these similarly aged women the hottest.)
We recently had Yuka Iguchi showing us her age-defying beach body and bust.
Former AKB48 idol Mai Oshima is also 37 and looks amazing.
Mayumi Yamanaka is a bit younger but a ...
Yuka Iguchi is Japan's hot jukujo of the moment. She went from relatively little-known voice actress and singer to a gravure star when she started showing off her sporty body in 2024.
She released a print photo book, More More More, which was only her second (and first since 2012), and it sold well enough to merit a second digital edition.
Though the photo book was not nude, you see lots of Yuka's finely toned body.
Even as she approaches 40, the unmarried Iguchi shows no signs of shifting down a gear in this chapter of her career.
Now aged 37 and a 20-year industry veteran, she ...
She might be in her mid-fifties. She might be a nearly forgotten star from the 1990s. But Reiko Kato is proving that age is no obstacle as she continues her gravure comeback.
After a shoot for Weekly Friday magazine late last year that was her first in 26 years, Kato is now set to release a photo book.
Around is her first such release in 27 years. It comes out in October from Kodansha and is shot by high-profile photographer Motofumi Sannomiya. The sensual shoot highlights Kato's slim and fit body as she poses in sensual swimwear and elegant clothing.
The Saitama native is now 56 years ...
