AKB48 senior manager smokes drugs, sleeps with teenage hookers

We’ve been sitting on this story for a few days to see how it would pad out. And it just keeps on getting better and better.

The tabloid Shukan Bunshun has been publishing a series of photos of AKB48 manager Tomonobu Togasaki smoking (legal) drugs and meeting girls at love hotels.

Togasaki is photographed smoking H Zone 12th, a legal stimulant, in a stairwell of a posh bar in central Tokyo.

Though it is not suggested — yet! — that 40-year-old Togasaki has been grooming the hundreds of idols and wannabe idols he manages or auditions for his own sexual predilections, the tabloid has caught him visiting various hotels with different young girls, some of whom are less than 20.

What is funny is how married family man Togasaki was so glib when he responded to accusations about his “affair” with a college girl.

“She’s not an amateur. It’s prostitution. That’s not the same as having an affair!”

So if you are screwing girls half you age who are “professionals”, then your wife has no cause for complaint! Oh, and teenage girls should continue to meet you to discuss their bright futures in the world of idol-dom.

AKB’s management is no stranger to scandal.

There are consistently strong rumors of Yakuza connections — like with most of the geinoukai — plus that Tomomi Kasai was or is having an affair with Yasushi Kubota. Many of the top AKB girls are basically rumored to have slept with the managers, including Mariko Shinoda, which wouldn’t shock anyone who knows about the Gravure idol, for example, where the practice of sexual favors to managers is commonplace.

So far top dog Yasushi Akimoto himself has remained clean.