Like that perennial stumper "Where do elephants go to die?", the question of what happens to all the scores of AKB48 idols once they "graduate" is often on our minds.
Sure, some go on to mildly successful acting careers. But for the most, there is only oblivion or a career in porn.
Faced with this dilemma, Anna Mori decided to go to the grassroots.
She launched this crowdfunding campaign to get her first photo book into publication. Why should only the "top" ladies get all the kudos and merchandise? She has her fans too!
As she turned 20 (and thus an adult -- yes!), she set a ...
A little while ago the gravure world was stunned by the sudden appearance of a gorgeous model called Rara Anzai. She made her debut in a nude shoot for Weekly Playboy magazine that fully showed off her incredible bust and body to the full.
The photos are "censored" but are actually highlights from a full-front "hair nude" photo-book called "Hello, Goodbye", published in June 2014. (It's common for photo-books, especially high-profile and raunchy ones, to have a promo spread in a weekly tabloid magazine at the same time as the release.)
In fact, a little bit of digging by those in ...
AKB48's Yuko Oshima like you've never seen her before, naked!
At least, that's what the publisher is (almost) promising.
While she has never been averse to risque shoots, Yuko's new photo book is particularly eyebrow-raising. By comparison, most AKB girls, even after graduating, remain fairly safe, though there are exceptions. Atsuko Maeda, for example, is attempting to forge a career in mainstream acting (good luck with that).
Over the summer the twenty-five-year-old Yuko has been stripping down for photographer Mika Ninagawa. The results are a photo book to be released in ...
Saeko. The cute little minx was famous for being famous a while back. Then she was famous being a famous baseball player's wife. Then she was famous for divorcing the famous baseball player. Then she was just famous. Kind of.
Now she is reinventing herself. She has just released a "semi-nude" sexy photo book this month, Episode 1, which comes after Saeko Snap! last year. Both feature a lot of flesh, confirming our suspicions that Saeko is not just a gold-digging ditzy tarento who may or may not have had plastic surgery.
She married Yu Darvish in 2007; it was of course a shotgun ...
Haruna Kojima, the 25-year-old AKB48 idol who we believe is the only major AKB girl with anything worth talking about, has released her first photo book "Kojiharu".
Just in time for Christmas, the book features a selection of hot images, not least one in which Haruna is doing her best to promote the AKB tradition of the te-bura -- or "hand bra".
AKB girls have a habit of doing this kind of shot, though at least this time there is no child involved.
Here are some luscious snaps from behind the scenes.
And just to prove how nice ...
In Japan, politicos have an average age of circa 82. There are few woman and the few that exist tend to be scarily "driven" types. It's rare you get the full charms of Japan's gentle sex walking the corridors of power.
But last February, Asuka Tachikawa stood as an independent in the Niiza City council elections in Saitama, and got elected at the sprightly age of 27.
This hottie soon gained the reputation as being "too beautiful" to be a councillor.
The knives were out, fueled no doubt by the green-eyed monster. She was then accused of not having lived long enough in the city and ...
AKB48's Asuka Kuramochi has grown up. She will release her first solo photo book on September 11th called "Mimi-tabu", which means "earlobe".
We're not sure if this has some sort of coded meaning or whether the photos will showcase Asuka's lovely ears. Saying that, Asuka is known as an "ear sommelier" and apparently has a liking for liking other girls' ears...
The release will coincide with her 24th birthday, though we think the present is more for us than her!
The shoot was done in Asuka's local town, Yokohama, and handled by photographer Tatsuo Watanabe.
While ...
These ladies look pretty hot, right?
Well, actually these are otoko no ko (男の娘), crossdressing males, photographed by Naoko Tachibana.
They feature nine crossdressers from the cafe and bar New Type, which opened in Akihabara in May 2009. Tachibana has put these together as a photo book, "Yuri Danshi", 10,000 copies of which have been printed -- that's quite a demand!
We think you'll agree that these ladies look lovely.
Otoko no ko culture -- a mixture of cosplay and crossdressing -- is huge in Japan, with its own magazines, shopping sites ...
Photographer Yuji Susaki has got together with Akihabara idol unit Dempagumi.inc to create a photo book with 100 cosplay models.
The "Dempa Models x 100 Cosplay" collection goes on sale August 8th.
We only just blogged about another Susaki cosplay photography project and it seems he is very much in the news these days.
The Dempagumi.inc girls (who include Moga Mogami and Nemu Yumemi) are featured in student uniforms, nurse uniforms and more. The publishers hope to sell 5,000 copies in the first run.
While Dempagumi.inc may not have the profile of the ubiquitous AKB48, it has ...
Eriko Sato, the actress who was once also known for very provocative photo shoots
Now 31, Sato's career isn't so stellar any more and she is still unmarried. So sensibly she has turned back to her roots and released another photo book of sexy shots for her male fans.
With an F-cup bust and so-called "perfect body", the tall Eriko did the shoot in Hawaii -- her first such Gravure-style one in nine years. This is the only image available right now.
"I've heard my bikini shots are very popular with middle-aged men. Maybe it’s because I hit the age where they can imagine me as ...
