The Japanese actress Kasumi Arimura is best known for her sweet, gentle looks. She is usually seen with a smile on her face while advertising tea or something similarly innocuous (though she did do some gravure stuff early on in her career, much like Haruka Ayase also did). And so she is a surprising casting choice for the lead role in the new Netflix film Call Me Chihiro. Her character is meant to be a former sex worker who takes up a new job at a bento lunchbox shop in a seaside town. (We were also surprised to see that she is now 30. She seemed so much younger.) Though Netflix has ...

     Read More     

International Women's Day is celebrated in all kinds of ways and you often see marches in Japan, where women certainly need more advocates. Our friends at Kanojo Toys, the biggest online Japanese adult toys store shipping globally, have told us that they are marking the occasion with a sale. You can get 20% off ANY adult toy until March 9 by using the code IWD. Of course, since the day is meant to be all about celebrating women, you could get something to reward female pleasure. The team at Kanojo Toys recommend the Real Deal Skin Dildo, a fantastically realistic and large Japanese cock ...

     Read More     

Japan is famous for its low crime, but it depends on what kind of crime and how you measure things. And it doesn't mean that crime is not on the rise in certain areas. According to recent media reports, child abuse cases continue to climb, with police recording 2,181 in 2022 (up from 2,174 the previous year) -- a new record. Stalking cases are also at a record high, the National Police Agency said on March 2, as were domestic violence consultations, though there was a slight fall in the number of DV cases in which the police took action or made an arrest. (It should be noted that the ...

     Read More     

Gravure photographer Seiichi Nomura recently sat down for an interview with Aera.dot in which he looked back on his five-decade-long career, during which he has photographed countless numbers of idols, actresses, models, and singers. "I've done more than 400 hundred photo books and thousands of covers for weekly magazines," Nomura estimates. Originally an interior photographer, Nomura got into gravure by necessity: he needed the money. In the summer of 1976, at the age of 25, he traveled to Europe. After he returned, though, he was told by his clients that he had been away too long and they ...

     Read More     

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 ...

     Read More     

The fantastically titled I Want You, Nana-chan, Give Me a Bite was released in Japan in 2021 and stars porn star Yura Kano and musician (and ex-AV star) Toko Namiko. After its quiet release in just a few theaters, we are finally catching up with it now. Directed by Hideo Jojo (who also made the very explicit Believers starring Yui Kitamura), we're not sure the 70-minute film is technically classified as a pink movie but it bears many of the hallmarks of sexploitation. The low-budget film is about the eponymous Nana (played by Yura Kano), who has to move back home after being fired for ...

     Read More     

Asuka Hanamura (華村あすか) has continued with the wet, semi-nude streak she started in early 2022. Following on from her first photo book, the actress is back with another lingerie and bikini shoot that showcases her slinky body. The 23-year-old Yamagata native is known for her alluring mole and sun-kissed skin. In her new photo book, which comes out on March 18 from Kodansha, she is seen in the shower holding her hands over her nude chest (a variant on the tebura "hand bra" pose that's a gravure standard), or lying on her front with her naked back on display. Alright, ...

     Read More     

Somewhat strangely and belatedly, this has become a controversial topic this month. The popular porn star Eimi Fukada had to backtrack with an apology after she attracted opprobrium for asserting that men should pay for women on dates, since the latter investing a lot of time and money into preparing for the date. And then former AKB48 idol Mai Oshima weighed in, saying during a livestream on her YouTube channel that she wouldn't go to a party or dinner where the guys weren't paying. Japanese dating app Omiai conducted a poll in August 2022 of 217 men and 247 women -- all of whom have a ...

     Read More     

It seems that everyone is using AI these days to make art, photos, and even essays. The results are often very impressive. Perhaps even worrying. But here's some AI that's really worth getting excited about. Kanyon Industries, which seems to be based in Hong Kong, posts examples of AI art featuring sexy cosplayers -- all digitally rendered, of course. Heavily influenced by Japanese sources, it was inevitable that the results would strike big among Japanese netizens (as in, almost 31 million views and counting for this one tweet). People say that AI still struggles with hands but ...

     Read More     

Welcome back, Nanao, it's been a while. Far too long. The mononymous actress known for her long legs has spent several years on TV, but we still have very fond memories of her stunning photo book 1028_24, which made her legs famous back in 2012, and her sexy Anan magazine cover shoot from shortly after. In the early 2010s, in between roles in TV dramas where she was almost always cast as a mean type, she seemed determined to push things as far as they could go, blurring the line between gravure and fashion modeling. Divine is Nanao's first photo book in 10 years. Shot on the island of ...

     Read More