Ex-SKE48 Machiko Tezuka’s Akihabara gravure cafe busted by police

What do gravure idols, porn stars, music idols, and models do after they are famous? It is a question that preoccupies us a fair bit on this blog.

Some open small businesses — and the savvy former stars choose ventures that trade on their fandom and existing networks.

Former SKE48 member Machiko Tezuka is now 38 years old and firmly into sexy jukujo “older woman” territory.

She opened a kind of “gravure cafe” in Akihabara in 2015 in which gradols talk to customers at a table and entertain them in swimwear. Highlights on the menu included “tit squeeze pancake” for ¥1,500, which involve being served with a close-up of the gravure idol’s bust.

The cafe, called Discover! Gravure Culture Festival (発掘！グラドル文化祭), features appearances by such idols as Machiko Tezuka herself, Miu Sakurai (the naked girl from the result election posters in Tokyo), and Ema Toyota (Ayumi Nakamizu).

But all those sexy services may be no more. The cafe was busted by police for violation of the entertainment business law, Machan revealed last week. It had been operating with a license under the law, which covers hostess clubs, brothels, and more.

She has now applied for a permit and so is able to continue to operate her business as a cafe and bar.

To be honest, when we saw the headlines, we assumed the worst and thought there had been actual arrests or — considering the prevalence in Akihabara for camouflaged sex parlors — that they were doing more extreme things like offering customers off-the-menu “extras.”

A member of SKE48 (the Nagoya version of AKB48) until 2009 and SDN48 (the sexier version of the group) until 2012, Machiko Tezuka became notorious for doing nude shoots after graduating, including full-frontal. This was at a time when increasing numbers of ex-idols were launching porn careers.