Curvy, busty gravure idols are nothing new. But it can still make you stop and sputter when you stumble over a provocative shoot. Take Aoi Fujino (藤乃あおい), whose bust is meant to measure a whole meter! Her latest photo shoot is nude -- or at least about as close as it is possible to be without being nude. Making her 23rd birthday, Fujino shows off her attractive body by posing with her arms over her breasts (the classic tebura pose) and a hand covering her crotch. Sometimes the only thing preserving her modesty is her long hair or soap suds rubbed over her wet body. But when it ...

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Readers, we have failed you. After reporting on Mariya Nagao's latest photo book in December 2021, we failed to follow up when it was released earlier this year. We should have, because it was actually (as rumored) Mariya Nagao's first nude photo book. Her fourth print book Yabai! Mariya. came out in January and follows Mariyagi as she visits an old hot spring resort with its run-down love hotels and snack bars. The Showa-themed shoot features a naked Mariya in vintage clothes that she takes off for a bath and then enjoys the water. Her nude butt is visible in several shots. After years of ...

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Riko Suzuhara (鈴原りこ) is a 30-year-old gravure idol who is also apparently a certified and practicing caregiver. She could use those nursing skills to intimate effect in the bedroom, no doubt. Just imagine what she could do with those firm hands of hers! A little later than most gradols, Suzuhara has got a decent boost to her career with the release of her debut photo book, coming out on September 1 from Kodansha. (She didn't make her gravure debut until age 26.) As a promo, Weekly Gendai recently published some preview images showcasing the photo book, which is an ambitious nude ...

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We've bemoaned the crowded and competitive state of the gravure industry before. A gradol may grace the cover of Weekly Playboy or Young Jump one week and, just a few months later, be hung out to dry as yet another young lady in a bikini takes their place. It's hard to keep up with all the new arrivals on the scene and while many gravure idols try to expand into acting and TV work without explicitly "graduating" from glamor modeling, some do more formally retire. But even this is often done without much fanfare. Perhaps it gets announced on social media and then that's it: the idol is ...

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The graduation of various leading members and the restrictions placed on live, in-person events by the pandemic have greatly reduced the presence of AKB48 and its sister groups in popular culture. The groups retain strong followings, of course, but the days when AKB dominated advertising and TV shows seem over. As such, even the little scandals seem to pass us by. We missed that Yuka Suzuki (鈴木優香) was forced to graduate AKB48 last September due to an alleged romance (oh, the horror!) that first emerged in spring 2021. Following her ignominious departure from AKB48, Yuka Suzuki ...

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Yuka Kuramochi has returned to gravure with her first shoot since she gave birth to a child in 2021. Kuramochi, who is married to a very successful esports player, chose to make a splash with her comeback. After all, landing a shoot with Yuka Kuramochi alone would be sure to shift copies, but Weekly Playboy elected for a whammy for its May 23 issue. Joining Kuramochi are Jun Amaki, Fumina Suzuki, Saki Yanase, and Saki Suzuki. So we get five of the most voluptuous ladies in the industry, all in one shoot. And what a shoot, as the preview images and the behind-the-scenes pics reveal! It's ...

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A reader recently chided us for not writing about the Yumi Sugimoto's return to gravure (though we did post pics on tumblr). The truth is, even with "gravure comebacks," there are simply too many idols to keep track of, let alone write about in detail on these digital pages. But here's one comeback that is certainly worthy of note. Yuka Hirata (38) made a very welcome return to our lives with her first Weekly Playboy gravure shoot in 14 years, first published in the March 19 issue of the magazine. Now on the cusp of 40 and steeped in jukujo territory like a finely aged wine, the former ...

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Welcome back, Shizuka Nakamura. We've missed you. We can't think of the last time that we saw a new shoot by the former top gradol. Thankfully, building on the momentum of her role in the high-profile Netflix adultery drama Fishbowl Wives, in which she appears in a sex scene, Shizuka Nakamura has returned to her first career: gravure. Shizuka Nakamura appears in the March 25 issue of weekly magazine Friday with a nine-page, winter-onsen-themed shoot. Now aged 33 and as a slim as ever (if anything, a bit slimmer than before?), the Kyoto native has matured into a sensual jukujo. (If we're ...

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Put the media's obsession with youth to one side. Japanese women, we can attest by direct experience, are still very attractive in their forties. As noted before on this blog, former TV announcer Mariko Seyama has spent years tantalizing us with her body, before finally showing her breasts at the age of 41. After enjoying the shots of her nipples visible through see-through clothing from her photo book, "Milk," released last year, we found more nude pictures from a magazine shoot. Sure, she's shown off her naked butt before, but these are very nice and really flaunt her newly slimmed-down ...

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April marks the start of the 2022 fiscal and academic years in Japan. It also brings with a major change for young people: the age of adulthood will come down from 20 to 18. Eighteen- and 19-year-olds can already vote, so this change has already been in the works for a while. One of the major consequences of this is regards contracts (somewhat strangely, the age for smoking, drinking, and gambling -- all the good things about being an adult -- will remain 20). In the past, they needed parental consent to sign a commercial contract until they reached the age of majority. Given that a lot of ...

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