Ex-AKB48 idol Mariya Suzuki goes semi-nude for first photo book

Former AKB48 idol Mariya Suzuki (鈴木まりや) has stripped off for a semi-nude photo book.

The 29-year-old joined AKB48 in 2009 and transferred to Shanghai-based sister group SNH48 in 2012. She graduated in June 2017. She has since worked as an actress and maintained a following tens of thousands-strong on social media.

“Merenda” (presumably derived from the Italian word meaning “nuncheon”) is her debut photo book and is released on Monday. To promote it, Suzuki is appearing in gravure shoots in Flash, Entame, and Asagei Secret magazines. The project represents her first attempt at a full gravure photography shoot.

She looks stunning in black lingerie (check out those gloves!) but even better naked in the bath, barely covering her modesty with her hands. Does that qualify as a tebura “hand bra” shot? It’s become something of a requisite for any photo book these days.

The photo book is coming out via an online photo book production and retail service called Photobook Base, which is run by a company that specializes in producing merchandise for YouTubers and Instagrammers.

Carving out a post-AKB career is notoriously difficult and only a few of the members of the supergroup have managed to achieve this — most of them the major idols who had established a reputation and following during the elections.

The rest — the dozens of minor members or “trainees” — are consigned to the dustbin of fandom upon graduation.

Recently, former AKB48 idol Kira Takahashi tried to boost her post-group fame with a semi-nude photo book — a strategy also adopted by Ayano Umeta (now working under then name Ayano Shimizu) and Nana Owada.