Yuka Ogura makes gravure comeback
Way back in 2019, in those pre-pandemic halcyon days, we lamented the departure of Yuka Ogura from gravure magazines. With the release of a hugely successful nude photo book, she announced she would no longer do swimsuit cover shoots for gravure magazines.
Well, now she’s back — older, wiser, and just as sexy.
The iyashi-kei “healing” idols with the gentle smile and girl-next-door looks has triumphantly returned to the world of gravure magazines for the first time in about five years with a cover shoot for the current issue of Kodansha’s Young Magazine, which went on sale on Monday.
The issue celebrates the magazine’s 45th anniversary and the 26-year-old’s summer-themed comeback swimsuit shoot has attracted headlines in the mainstream media.
The past few years have been somewhat lean ones for the slim and slinky Ogura. After announcing she would no longer do gravure magazine shoots in 2019, she then got into trouble in July 2020 for breaking protocol on a radio show.
She was a regular on the MBS Radio show but wanted to quit due to the antisocial hours of the broadcast slot. Disgruntled that her agency wouldn’t let her, she took to doing so live on air.
She then lost her contract with her agency, possibly by mutual agreement, and had to change her professional name (it’s technically the same, though she now writes her given name in hiragana, not kanji).
Her media appearances rapidly diminished, reducing her output to Instagram.
In 2022, she announced that she had moved to Singapore, like several Japanese celebrities in recent years.
Her comeback began with an appearance on an Abema show in March this year, when she announced she would be returning to work in Japan, though fans at the time expected this to mean acting work. She also said she had traveled to China to do an audition, but let’s hope she concentrates her ambitions on Japan.
