We recently wrote about AKB48 idol Mion Mukaichi's somewhat surprising decision to do a semi-nude photo book while still a member of the supergroup.
As we mentioned in our post, most music idols wait until graduating before posing semi-nude or nude. And in fact, they are often forced to do something like that to build any sort of career in a crowded marketplace.
A case in point is the ravishing Satomi Kaneko, who carved out a name for herself as a provocative, sensual model after a brief stint in AKB48 in 2007.
She started doing gravure in 2014 after an acting role in a sexploitation movie ...
With music sales down, fewer meet-and-greet events like before, and far less general public interest in its current members (which means fewer TV appearances and fewer lucrative advertising campaign contracts), AKB48 is in, well, perhaps not quite a state of decline but certainly a period of less prominence in popular culture compared to the glory days of the early 2010s.
Is this why its members are doing semi-nude photo shoots even before graduating the group? The AKB overlords used to be very exact about how much flesh the members could show, determined to keep things tantalizing and ...
Unlike the members of AKB48 and Nogizaka46 and all their sister groups, the fine young ladies of the somewhat tamer Momoiro Clover Z have not indulged in gravure shoots during their long careers as performers.
Now as they edge toward 30 -- a significant milestone for music idols -- and even start to get married, it seems even less likely.
Or so you would think.
Reni Takagi, a member of the color-coordinated group, announced her marriage last year, though thankfully not her retirement from the group.
She is now set to release her first solo photo book on August 29 at the ripe age of 30. ...
Morning Musume idol Maria Makino is promoting her ninth (!) photo book, the aptly named Dear Maria, which came out in Japan earlier this month.
That's quite a career and she's still only 22!
The summer-themed photo book, which was shot in Guam, includes pics of the young Aichi native in a figure-hugging, skin-tone swimsuit that makes her look naked.
Unfortunately, the actual photo book is too new for decent shots to exist online, it seems, but there are a few somewhat grainy behind-the-scenes shots of lovely Maria in her skimpy swimwear.
Netizens are, it almost goes ...
Recently graduated from Nogizaka46, Asuka Saito has released a new photo book and it's making a splash.
Saito, who is half-Myanmarese and half-Japanese, was a first-generation member of Nogizaka46. The 24-year-old graduated the idol group earlier this month.
She was one of the most popular members of the group, having performed with them for over 11 years, and is hoping to use her departure (and the buzz surrounding her graduation concert last week) to launch a solo career.
This week, the first images from her new photo book, Museum, were released. They are semi-nude, with the slinky ...
Yesterday, we blogged about Rio Teramoto's teasing nude scene in Netflix drama Sanctuary. As we noted, she also had a sexy scene (but not a sex scene) in the first season of anthology show Tonight, I Will Fall in Love With My Body last year.
That got us thinking about the second season that aired earlier this year but passed us by.
Each episode of the show, which is broadcast on TV Asahi and the streamer Abema, focuses on the love life of a different female character. It's a bit erotic but not explicit. As far as we know, the show doesn't feature actual nudity, though there are plenty of ...
One of the most popular members of NMB48, Yuzuha Hongo made the surprise announcement on April 4 that she would be graduating the Osaka group.
Alongside her singing, Hongo pursues a burgeoning career in gravure (as reported before), having released her first photo book from Kodansha in 2022.
A second photo book is set for release at the end of May, shortly before she will graduate from NMB48.
Known as Yuzu to her fans, the idol is still just 20 years old and seems very young to graduate (though she joined way back in 2015, so has devoted eight years of her life to the Namba-based group). ...
We've said it before and we'll say it again: the idol world is dodgy.
Let's be loud and clear: we hope the young women (well, girls -- they are usually young teenagers) know about these potential risks before they get into the industry.
Sure, there are respectable managers out there, but bad apples and the bunch and all that. The industry is highly competitive and exploitative, known for making its young members work long hours for little pay, and for sexual abuse (no doubt partly accepted by people in the industry as the equivalent of the casting couch).
The media has reported another ...
Hot on the heels of the revelations over Mariko Shinoda's marital problems, allegedly caused by her infidelity, comes news of the nuptial dilemmas of another former AKB48 idol.
Kana Kobayashi is now aged 31 and seemed to have it all. Last March, she announced that she had married a famous investor and given birth to a child.
But then on January 16, she announced on social media that she was already divorced.
In fact, her husband had "another wife." If that wasn't bad enough, he was arrested in October on charges of investment fraud, sparking an online backlash against her.
Her husband ...
This story broke at the end of last year and we sat on it for a few days to see if there were any further developments.
A minor scandal has emerged involving top Nogizaka46 member Yuki Yoda, after the tabloid magazine Weekly Bunshun caught her going to a luxury gym in Ebisu, Tokyo, in which she was allegedly in a room alone with a male trainer for several hours.
The 22-year-old, who joined the idol group in 2016 but came firmly onto our radar when she released her hit photo book in 2020, apparently attends the gym twice a week and has the same male trainer for her sessions.
As noted in its ...
