Yesterday, we wrote about that eternal singleton who never stops being cute, the 40-year-old Sayaka Isoyama, who has just released a new photo book. Now we have yet another piece of evidence to back up what we wrote last week when speculating about Tomomi Morisaki's rumored pregnancy and preparations for marriage: that the majority of celebrity marriages in Japan are shotgun weddings. The actress and model Kyoko Hinami has announced she is pregnant and married. The 29-year-old made the announcement via social media on October 23. Hinami made her debut as a model in 2006, when she was ...

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When top gravure idol Tomomi Morisaki announced her long-rumored retirement, there was speculation about the exact reasons. Was she leaving the entertainment industry for good? Now that she was in her thirties, was she just quitting while she was ahead and before the glamor model offers dried up? Did she want to focus on her general TV celebrity gigs? It seems that the answer was that classic Japanese entertainer one: romance and a family. Now, just before the release of her retirement DVD and Blu-ray, comes news reports that the hottie is "seriously dating" a baseball player, Shota ...

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Kazusa Okuyama is one of the top gravure idols in Japan right now, though she went quiet for a while from the end of last year with few social media updates. The last major gravure-related thing she did was release a 2023 calendar and hold an exhibition with top gravure photographer Chikashi Kasai (both in December 2022). Her absence was essentially explained on February 14 (yes, Valentine's Day), when there came the shock announcement that one of the most eligible ladies in the land had got married. This typically would mean the end of a gravure career. (She also does occasional acting. In ...

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Spare a thought for Yui Imaizumi. The former Keyakizaka46 cutie seemed to have found love and happiness with a man, albeit one who does not use condoms and presumes there are no consequences to ejaculating inside her. After a tough time last year when she contracted the coronavirus, but also showed us how busty she is on Zoom, Imaizumi recently announced her marriage to 28-year-old YouTuber Mahoto Watanabe. The 22-year-old, who left Keyakizaka46 in 2018, also announced that she was pregnant, so in other words -- this is yet another celebrity shotgun wedding. A moment for fans to ...

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On November 12, idol Moga Mogami announced that she is pregnant on her personal blog. This should not be surprising, given that she is now 31 -- an age when many women in Japan would be pleased to start a family. But she's not married, nor was a marriage announced at the same time. Unlike a large number of prominent celebrities in Japan, she is not planning to marry the father of the child. Such shotgun weddings (or dekichatta kekkon) are common here, since the need for contraception is frequently ignored, though also because it is sometimes the only way to force the all-powerful ...

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For years it has been notoriously difficult to get hold of: the morning-after pill. In Japan, for a woman to receive emergency contraception, she has to go to a doctor and get a prescription. And it's expensive, too. But women have been campaigning for years to remove the barriers blocking easy access to the morning-after pill, which is surely one of the reasons for so many shotgun weddings in Japan (including among many prominent celebrities). The current system is condemned as shaming and discriminatory, and is particularly a problem for victims of sexual assault, whose treatment by ...

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As they have progressed steadily into their forties, the members of music band Tokio have become a marginal presence on the pop music charts. Instead, they have established themselves on Japanese television as one of the most popular presenters. A scandal ripped through the lineup last year, however, when member Tatsuya Yamaguchi was exposed as having invited teenagers to his apartment and, apparently in a drunken state, having kissed one. He resigned from the group and left the entertainment world. Tokio has soldiered on. One of the remaining members, Shigeru Joshima, has found solace in ...

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The Japanese cosplay world was in shock on June 29th when one of the most up-and-coming cosplayers, Nekomu Otogi, announced her surprise marriage at the age of just 20. Not only that, her new husband is a mangaka. And 31 years her senior! Yes, Kosuke Fujishima is one lucky, lucky guy. Oh, and she's pregnant. Yes, this is the classic dekichatta kekkon, or shotgun wedding. Don't worry, Nekomu, you are in fine company -- everyone from Meisa Kuroki to Eriko Satoh. But seriously, is this even legal? Apparently Fujishima, best known as the creator of Oh My Goddess!, ...

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The Japan Times has published an interesting article about Pilcon, a safe sex organization started by a young Japanese woman. "Asuka Someya discovered she was pregnant at the age of 20 when she was a university student." This proved the fuel for her later founding of Pilcon in 2013. Now every two months it holds workshops and talks to make up for the shortcomings of sex education (or lack there of) in Japanese schools and families. It has also produced YouTube videos about safe sex, such as this one which has been viewed 1.5 million times since late 2012. It contains the quite awesome ...

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Actress and Gravure model Eriko Sato (Satoeri) has announced her shock marriage. Not only is she pregnant (whoops, what's a condom?) but her new husband is an older man... and a foreigner. It's typical of Eriko Sato that she would choose a wealthy middle-aged for a much-anticipated husband. She is 33 to his 45 years. No doubt she used her slinky body and F-cup busty charms to seduce this hotel owner. When she released a new photo book recently she was quoted as saying: “I’ve heard my bikini shots are very popular with middle-aged men. Maybe it’s because I hit the age ...

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