Last year was full of gravure comebacks big and small. One of the more minor ones that nonetheless made us happy was Mayumi Yamanaka, now a mother of two and a mature, sensual 32.
In July 2025, she made a return to gravure after a few years away, appearing in a Weekly Playboy shoot and releasing a digital photo book. Mayumi has been in the industry for over two decades, having started as a junior idol when a teen. Her comeback proved once again that jukujo are the best.
She's also got a 30-year-old sister, Tomoe, who ostensibly retired in 2020.
That seems to have changed, though, since the ...
It feels a bit like we are back in the second half of the 2000s, with all the recent gravure comebacks: Serina of SDN48, Yuka Kosaka, busty actor Megumi Kagurazaka, and Saaya.
And now comes another! Former first-generation AKB48 idol Atsuko Maeda has returned to gravure for the first time in fourteen years.
Her "last" photo book, Beste, is due for release in mid-February next year.
Some initial preview pictures were released on December 26, showing the ex-idol's naked back and her buttocks framed by an alluring thong as she lies on a bed. Don't expect actual nudity but it looks like the ...
The former SDN48 idol Serina made a gravure comeback late last year with a new photo book released when she was 39.
It was enough of a hit to fuel a new stage in her career. She has followed up with another gravure shoot for a digital photo book produced by Weekly Friday. For a woman now aged 40, she looks stunning -- and isn't afraid of appearing in provocative erotic shoots just as sexy as the ones she did 15 years ago during the SDN48 peak.
Her latest release, Realism, is in three volumes, and follows another digital photo book in June. It has a black lingerie theme and, at least in ...
There are mature idols and jukujo, and then there's Miyuki Kojima.
The 73-year-old has just released her "last nude" in an adult photo book shot by veteran Koki Nishida for Shogakukan's Weekly Post digital series.
Always in my Prime: Reunion came out on December 15. It's called a "nude" but the previews indicate it falls more into the category of semi-nude, with no actual breasts on show, which is probably for the best, considering the age of the model. (The shots seem tamer than, say, fiftysomething Fumi Nakajima's releases.)
Kojima has previous, having already released digital ...
The curvy, comely Sayaka Isoyama has demonstrated her ageless allure yet again with the release of her latest photo book Yoin (translating as “afterglow” or “resonance”).
It was released by major publisher Kodansha on October 22, marking Isoyama’s 25th anniversary in the entertainment industry. Kodansha quickly released a follow-up digital edition, afterglow, on December 5 with further images.
Both books were shot in Cairns when Isoyama was 41 years old, though she has since turned 42. Isoyama is famously unmarried and perpetually single.
Images of a voluptuously, ...
In November, Bunshun published a two-part report about an elderly female prostitute, based on a book by Mizuho Takagi about street prostitution in the Kabukicho district of Shinjuku, Tokyo. The same book included an interview with a teen prostitute in Kabukicho, previously introduced in October.
One morning in Kabukicho, Takagi called out to an elderly woman crouching on the asphalt and got to know her. Kumi (not her real name) was standing on the street, working as an elderly streetwalker for ¥3,000 a session. She looked to be over 60 years old. He gradually came to learn her story.
Born ...
Is it something in the water? Or in the early winter air? Because we seem to be witnessing a wave of comebacks in the gravure industry right now, from 2000s favorites Yuka Kosaka and Megumi Kagurazaka to real blast-from-the-pasts like Mayumi Yamazaki and Reiko Kato, returning after decades away.
The latest returning star is Harumi Inoue.
Now aged 51, the freshly divorced 1990s and 2000s star has made her first full gravure appearance in 26 years.
Debuting in 1991, Inoue was a biggie of the post-bubble years but met a Mexican man in Canada, and ultimately married the foreigner and had ...
We all know the image of flight attendants: they're hot and sexy, and have got men eating out of their hands. But stereotypes are one thing and reality is quite another.
The comedian Crazy Coco used to work at a flight attendant for a foreign airline. While she probably had more than a few dalliances with hunky pilots and swanky execs flying in first class during her career, it seems that romance has been a rare thing in recent years.
On an edition of TV Asahi's The Hell I Loved that aired late at night on November 20, Crazy Coco confessed the sad state of her love life.
During a segment ...
Mayumi Yamazaki has burst back onto the scene at the age of 53 years young. Marking her first gravure shoot in 32 years, the comely ex-idol appears in a shoot over eight pages of the current issue of Weekly Flash.
Of course, makeup and Photoshop can work wonders for anyone, but we think Mayumi looks fantastic. Let's hope this isn't just a one-off.
The former music idol was a member of Onyanko Club's B-Gumi from 1986 to 1987, and then went on to release a few singles as a solo artist. Onyanko Club was the Morning Musume or AKB48 of its day.
She married in 1994 and retired from the ...
Michiko Kichise is divorced, 50 years old, and on the lookout for a new partner.
The mother-of-two actress and model split from her husband in 2021 after 11 years of marriage. She was a big star in the late 2000s, fronting many campaigns and frequently starring in major TV dramas. Her career has taken a slight back seat to motherhood in recent years, but it seems she is ready to move on in her personal life.
She recently appeared in a talk show in which she revealed that she is "now recruiting" a boyfriend.
"I don't know what type I am," she confessed. "When I was younger, I used to like ...
