Former SKE48 idol and actress Ruka Kitano (26) released her second photo book, The Birth of Venus, on December 19, 2025.
It is the long-awaited follow-up to her first photo book, Want to Try Touching Me?, which came out in September 2024 and was a huge hit.
It took us a while but we have finally gathered some highlights from the second photo book.
Looking back, the 26-year-old commented at a launch event in Tokyo, "I felt a lot of pressure to surpass my first photo book while doing the shoot."
Her first photo book was nude, featuring lots of shots of Ruka's naked butt, and this ...
We recently reported about the large-scale closure of soaplands around Japan following the shuttering of a major chain, possibly to avoid a police crackdown in the wake of the investigation into a major scouting operation that has had far-reaching consequences for the Japanese adult entertainment industry.
And with the closures, it brings to mind a peculiar legal situation for soaplands in Tokyo: according to the regulations governing sex services, you are not allowed to open an establishment in the city, with the exception of a few blocks near Yoshiwara, the old red-light district of Tokyo. ...
Japanese contact lens maker Ace has just launched a new brand called Cunte.
Yes, that's not a typo. Ace really did decide to call its new brand of one-day color lens Cunte, and to advertise it with music idol Amu Nigemizu (of Kyururin te Shitemite and Team Strawberry)
There's nothing quite like seeing publicity photos with a cute young Japanese woman fronting a campaign called Cunte.
Even better, the lineup is described as "Cunte special charms." Indeed, cunt does have special charms aplenty.
Apparently, it's meant to be a combination of "kyun" and "cute," the former an ...
Former AKB48 idols have been in the news again recently, from the first generation of idols like Atsuko Maeda (releasing her first photok book in 14 years) and Haruna Kojima (still ravishing at 37) to more recent members of the supergroup like Megu Taniguchi.
The 27-year-old Taniguchi, known as Omegu to fans, is now promoting Ravijour lingerie as part of a new campaign for the brand announced this month.
She was a member of AKB48 from 2013 to 2024. Fans are celebrating how stunning she looks in the revealing Ravijour lingerie, which revels in her slinky body.
Doing a stint as a ...
The gravure idol and actress Rio Teramoto is to make a comeback after five years.
In the intervening time, she has focused on her acting career, including teasing us with an almost-nude scene in the Netflix drama Sanctuary, in which she played a hostess.
Incredibly for someone who seems to have been around so long, she is still only 24 but hasn't released a photo book in six years.
Teramoto's second release comes out on April 1 and was shot in Perth, Australia. "This is my first gravure shoot in five years," she wrote on Instagram to her fans. "I'm grateful to everyone who waited for ...
Fans of early period AKB48 idols are in for a treat right now with the recent photo shoots of Haruna Kojima, who looks ravishing at 37, and the new photo book by Atsuko Maeda.
Maeda has established herself as a serious actress since leaving the idol group in 2012, having been with it since the very beginning. She also got married, had a child, and then divorced. Today, she's a 34-year-old single mom.
Japanese idol groups are often premised on members with girl-next-door looks and whose fandom emphasizes their normality. This was very much the case with AKB48 too, so much so that it's ...
In Japan, it is currently illegal to receive money for sex, but not to pay for sex. In other words, a sex worker's customer is not doing anything wrong in the eyes of the law, though the sex worker and the service she works for may well be in breach of the law.
A way around this is that sex workers may not always provide full service, at least nominally.
But in the wake of the moral and media panic over increased visible signs of prostitution in places like Okubo Park on the outskirts of Kabukicho, Tokyo, there are now motions in the government to redress the imbalance in the legal ...
The Japanese porn star Satsuki Toyooka has announced on social media is suffering from a rare illness.
On February 12, Toyooka announced on X that she was undergoing chemotherapy.
Satsuki Toyooka worked under the stage name Alice Toyonaka until 2023. She made her adult video debut in 2017 and established a following among fans with her E-cup breasts and peach butt.
In a post on January 30, the 28-year-old already warned fans that she was facing a very serious medical issue: "I'm sorry. I, Satsuki Toyooka, have been diagnosed with a rare illness. I may die. I may no longer be able to see ...
Meiji Yasuda Research Institute's Survey on Romance and Marriage has found that 76.3%, or more than three in four unmarried people, say they are not in a relationship, up from the previous survey in 2023.
Interest in romance and relationships is also declining, with fewer people expressing a desire to get married. Women cited "not feeling the need to get married," while men cited "less disposable income."
The survey was conducted online from December 12-21, 2025, targeting 8,872 men and women aged 18-54 nationwide (3,909 married and 4,963 unmarried).
While we often take issue with the ...
A Small Love Story: The World of Mameban Shunga is a new exhibition of erotic prints in Tokyo.
It focuses on mameban (literally, "bean format") shunga, referring to palm-sized prints that were distributed privately in the form of pictorial calendars and given to people like greeting cards. It is the world's first such showcase of shunga in this format, and features around 300 examples.
"These palm-sized prints contain intimate, humorous, and tender love stories," the organizers say. "Though small in scale, they are rich in expression."
The exhibition runs, aptly, from Valentine's Day on ...
