What happens to the literally thousands of gravure idols, music idols, and minor porn stars when their careers dry up?
Some go into prostitution, some get married. Still others become writers, like Nayuka Mine, or politicians, like Ayaka Shiomura or Renho.
Well, some switch tracks completely, like Yuka Kosaka.
She burst into the idol big time in 2004 when she won the Miss Young Magazine, and at her height was appearing on TV variety shows and in gravure shoots.
Then in 2009 she retired and became something of a media joke due to her sudden weight gain. Her glory ...
In general, this is a pretty positive blog. But we sometimes have sad news to relate.
After some weeks of media speculation about her health, the actress Naomi Kawashima has died at the age of 54. She was undertaking an operation to remove bile duct cancer.
Kawashima is also one of the most famous actresses to do a "hair nude" photo-book. Unlike her hair nude peers like Rie Miyazawa and Miho Kanno, Kawashima was already in her thirties at this point and it was a way for her to make a comeback.
She released "WOMAN", shot by Tatsumi Watanabe. This was in 1993, at the height of the hair ...
We swiftly became fans of curvy, sultry Machiko Tezuka when she first stripped off for a hair nude shoot in 2013.
Formerly of SKE48 and now-disbanded SDN48, the J-cup mistress has gone through several name changes: from Machiko Tezuka (her real name) to Ourei Harada (gravure debut) to Eiko Maeda (SKE48 debut), and back to Machiko Tezuka (SDN48 debut).
Now the 1986-born Machiko has stripped off again this year for some more photos. She is promoting a new photo book out in October, hence the motivation to take her clothes off again for the tabloids. Hey, we certainly won't complain about some ...
Yuka Kuramochi has legions of fans for one simple reason: her butt.
She has one of the curviest of asses in Gravure idol, which is complemented perfect by a slim waist and large bust. It apparently measures over 100cm!
And now Yuka Kuramochi has done perhaps her sexiest shoot yet. And it really shows off her naked flesh in a shoot for Young Animal magazine.
The 23-year-old idol is promoting her new photo book "Funbashiri", shot partly at her family home in Funabashi, Chiba. (The title is a pun on the city ...
If you like Saaya, you'll be very excited by her semi-nude shoot. Even if you're not a fan, only someone without a pulse could fail to find these ravishing pics stunning.
The famously curvier gravure idol (whose full name is Saaya Irie) and former junior idol (she's still only 21!) has posed for a series of near-naked shots. Only her long hair preserves her modesty.
These were featured in tabloid magazine Weekly Friday recently.
Just to be comprehensive, we've also included some of Saaya's previous sexy shots too. You can't have too much of a good ...
Remember the Realise front-zipper swimsuit?
Perhaps the hottest, most tantilizing swimming costume we've seen, it inspired its own meme.
Originally the front-zipper swimsuit by Realise was modeled by the ravishing and appropriately busty Gravure model Miyako Akane.
"Japanese culture to the world" is Realise's slogan. While we're not sure if official government tourism bodies would agree, we share their ethos.
Well, now their "image model" is Umi and boy does the E-cup model look good in the front-zipper swimsuit.
This is Umi on a non-Realise ...
Mero Imai is a woman of many talents: a former snowboard half-pipe Olympic competitor, a one-time hostess and call girl, a nude model, and a bondage slave (photographically, at least).
Born in 1987, Imai has posed for a hair nude shoot for her 2013 photo book "Mellow Style", as well as a series of provocative bondage images for a weekly tabloid.
Alas, the images of the 2013 BDSM-inspired shoot only seem to be online as scans of the magazine.
She revealed in 2012 that after her failure at the 2006 Winter Olympics, she became a ...
Fumi Nikaido is a sprightly 20-year-old Okinawan but has already acquired legions of fans.
A child star, she made her debut as a junior idol when 12. She is probably best known overseas for her role in Himizu in 2011.
In addition to her prolific career (starring in several films a year), she posed nude for Weekly Playboy in 2014 and an accompanying photo book. Sadly, it wasn't a full-frontal "hair nude" shoot, though that might even be illegal, given that she was under 20.
No breasts on display yet but give her time...
It was also reported she was dating older actor ...
Make the first "AI doll" based on gravure idol Ai Shinozaki.
First off, there's some serious wordplay going on here: "AI doll" is aidoru (idol), while Shinozaki's name also references "artificial intelligence."
In other words, some geeky boffins are planning to create a fully digital version of Shinozaki.
Virtual idols already exist aplenty, from Vocaloid music idols to AKB48 temporary digital members and virtual dating game idols.
How is this different?
Well, they are going to use artificial intelligence based on Ai Shinozaki.
The digital creation will speak like her and learn her ...
Ayaka Noda is our lovely lady this week (all right, it's been a few weeks since our last showcase but anyway...).
Ayaka has a real supermodel body -- nice bust, curvy legs, hot face. Her sultry, I-wanna-fuck look is perfect for these sweaty summer days.
Born in 1988, Ayaka's Gravure modeling career began in ...
