When the 27-year-old Mari Takahashi agreed to stand as a candidate for the Democratic Party for the People, the senior members of the party must have been pleased. Japanese politics is a staid world full of graying men in dark suits, and the presence of young blood -- especially photogenic young female blood -- is a dream come true. Takahashi is a graduate of Keio University, one of the most prestigious colleges in the country. She won the university's beauty contest in 2016 and worked as a TV announcer while still at college, followed by three years at an IT consultancy company. She also ...

     Read More     

Politicians in the Kanagawa assembly were recently filmed by the media sleeping on the job. Over several days, FNN's cameras spotted multiple lawmakers having a nap during sessions of the assembly, instead of doing the job the public elects (and pays) them to do. Plus ça change. We could fill this blog with examples of politicos sleeping on the job. But the cameras also spotted one lawmaker doing something a bit more cheeky. Yusuke Terasaki of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan was observed using his computer to look up non-work-related matters. In fact, he was planning his ...

     Read More     

The afterlives of idols is an ongoing theme of this blog. What happens to those music and gravure stars after they call it quits? Some, of course, go into porn, like Yotsuha Kominato (Rikako Inoue). Others, like AKB48's Risa Naruse (Haruna Aisaka), marry a celebrity. Many go on to do ordinary jobs. Here's a slightly more unusual take on that: Manaka Shida, formerly of Keyakizaka46 (now called Sakurazaka46 since 2020), is now a Ginza hostess. Of course, it's well known that many adult video and gravure idols are doing hostessing on the side anyway. Some have also announced this publicly ...

     Read More     

You may never have heard of Marie Tachibana, but pretty much everyone in Kabukicho seems to have heard of her. Perhaps the first thing to remark about her is that she is biracial (her father is American). The second is that she comes from a Christian family (that father was a missionary) -- and a big family at that, with seven siblings. Instead of pursuing the conventional academic path, none of the children went to high school. Marie went to volunteer in India when she was 15, for instance. If you were following J-Pop closely in the 2000s, you might have already seen Marie Tachibana ...

     Read More     

It's not just top businessmen and politicians who frequent the pricey hostess bars of Ginza and elsewhere. Male celebrities also have expensive tastes, including spending time with the attractive younger ladies who (as long as you keep buying them over-priced drinks) will pretend to find your conversation interesting and hint that they might be willing to sleep with you. However, large consumption of alcohol and the sense of privilege that comes from paying for a woman's time can lead to trouble. One of Japan's most famous and popular actors, Teruyuki Kagawa, was forced to apologize on ...

     Read More     

Retired adult video star Kirara Asuka is hoping to build a second career for herself (beyond her successful YouTube channel and apparel line, CPITO) with a new venture. She is "producing" a hostess club, which is set to open on August 2 in Ginza, the district of central Tokyo known for its luxury boutiques, restaurants, and, yes, hostess bars. The club, J-Vogue, is now recruiting its "cast" of hostesses, offering hourly (yes, hourly!) wages of up to ¥30,000. Asuka, who retired from the JAV industry in 2020, made the announcement on her official social media accounts on Monday, and it was ...

     Read More     

The 39-year-old gravure model and celebrity Yoko Kumada is "working" at a luxury hostess club in Ginza. Well, kind of. The initial media headlines were a little misleading. Kumada's entrepreneur husband was arrested last month for assaulting her, including allegedly hitting her in the face, but was released without charge two days later. She has announced her intention to start divorce proceedings, though there are also reports that the incident was prompted by her husband's suspicions of her adultery, which might complicate things. She and her husband have three young children. She shared ...

     Read More     

Formerly known as Tenka Hashimoto (橋本甜歌), Tenchim (てんちむ) is a 27-year-old Chinese-Japanese tarento and model. She has relaunched her career after more than a decade gracing people's TV screens and magazine pages -- and now she's raising things up a sexy notch (or several). This has come about due to a scandal in 2020 with "bust-boosting" products she endorsed on her popular YouTube channel, which turned out to be fake -- since she had, in fact, has a boob job. She also admitted to taking marijuana on an overseas holiday. With her income drying up, she started working last ...

     Read More     

Just as the second wave was beginning to hit Tokyo late last month, the country entered a four-day weekend that was originally intended to mark the triumphant start of the Olympics in the capital. Things were not as they were meant to be and the holiday was subdued. Netizens, though, found plenty of entertain themselves by finding TV news interviews with women on the streets of Tokyo about the need for self-restraint during the long holiday weekend. Naturally, they were pleased to see how busty these interviewees were. You don't have to be a cynic to wonder if the news people deliberately ...

     Read More     

In a further sign that hosts and hostesses are skillfully trying to reframe the media narrative that has demonized their trade as hotspots for spreading coronavirus infections in Tokyo, the city's metropolitan government has released educational videos on COVID-19 that see two hosts and a hostess ask doctors questions. After host clubs began cooperating with the Shinjuku government to initiate testing for employees and stem the spread in Kabukicho (and the demonization in the media), and the government started handing out cash payments to clubs that agree to close and to individual hosts and ...

     Read More