Minami Minegishi tebura hand bra is semi-nude delight

Ahead of the release in July of her new photo book, a preview image of Minami Minegishi has come out showing the slinky idol doing the classic semi-nude “hand bra” (tebura) pose.

While pretty tame considering what some AKB48 graduates get up to, this kind of photo shoot has become something of a rite of passage for AKB48 idols.

Haruna Kojima did it, covering her gorgeous pale flesh with her tiny hands. Likewise, Atsuko Maeda has done a tebura and so did Yuko Oshima in a Mika Ninagawa shoot.

Most notoriously, Tomomi Kasai’s tebura was so controversial it led Kodansha to cancel the release of her photo book.

Though once most famous for having sex and shaving her head in penitence, the 23-year-old Minami Minegishi has recently generated headlines for her overweight-to-muscular advertising campaign.

One thing seems sure: though Rino Sashihara may have won the AKB48 “election” this weekend for the second time running, the AKB paymasters are determined to push Minegishi as the new big idol.