2023 was another busy year for us, publishing an article almost every weekday. We hope you enjoyed reading our content. With just a few days of 2023 left, let's look back on the year through some of the major developments in the gravure industry. In January, Ichika Miri announced her retirement (though since she's just 24 years old, we hope she might return under a different name and new management). One-time top gravure princess Anri Sugihara released her first photo book in over six years. She is now a charmingly mature 41 years old. In March, Memo Oba retired. Gravure is brutally ...

     Read More     

As the year draws to a close, it's natural to look back on the past months and get a little nostalgic. Present-day Japanese gravure idols dressed up and photographed in the style of vintage pinup models? Yes, please! That's the basic concept behind a new photo book called Pin-Up Girls Selection, which is attempting to conjure up the image of "American porn from 100 years ago," according to the promo spiel. There are nine participating models: Rin Takahashi, ENA, Hinano Ayakawa, Miku Oshima, Miyako Sono, Miyu Nakagawa, Aya Hazuki, Haruka Bando, and Saki Yanase. Bando and Oshima are ...

     Read More     

It's Christmas in Tokyo, which means . . . what exactly? Well, not really Christmas in the traditional sense. Christmas in Japan is, of course, not a holiday per se (and falling on a Monday this year, everyone will be working as normal, including yours truly), but Santa cosplay is very popular, as are "Christmas cakes" (which rarely resemble what a European might expect), German-style Christmas markets, and going on dates on Christmas Eve. In fact, Christmas is basically just a romantic day for couples, and one of the busiest times of year for love hotels. Gravure idols and models often ...

     Read More     

A retiring actress has complained that the mainstream media is ignoring the open secret that is the casting couch in the entertainment industry. Though the sexual abuse that took place at Johnny's has now received the media attention it deserves after decades of silence, Misa Hayashi (林美佐) has said that there are still major issues of abuse in the industry. In an interview with Daily Shincho, Hayashi relates how she was told to sleep with people when her DVD sales were poor. This was when she was working as a gravure idol in her twenties. As we have noted in the past, the casting ...

     Read More     

Around this time of year, a lot of celebrities, music idols, and models release photo books and calendars. But something that might surprise people outside Japan, where streaming has become so dominant, is that gravure DVDs (or what used to known as image videos) are also still a lucrative market. Yesterday saw the release of a new DVD by one of our favorite gradols, Eimi Matsushima. The Saitama native who is tall and busty has put out a new 105-minute DVD called special thanks to... and, as the title suggests, it is meant to be her final gravure DVD. Though we haven't seen anything ...

     Read More     

The top Japanese porn star Minamo has appeared in an advertising campaign for leading Japanese lingerie brand Ravijour. She is modeling various holidays-themed underwear items that are now available from Ravijour stores and online. She is also holding a promotional meet-and-greet event for the brand in Shinjuku in January, where you even get a signed Minamo-Ravijour mug. We adore Minamo and she looks ravishing in the Ravijour lingerie, which comes in an erotic red. In keeping with the "holiday collection" theme, the lingerie is festively colored. A Christmas campaign for a ...

     Read More     

Busty gravure idol and actress Yuno Ohara has delighted us before with her sexy scenes in TV dramas, such as the late-night show Himitsu o motta shonentachi (The Young Boys with Secrets) earlier in the year and Sweat and Soap last year. Sadly, these being shown on mainstream Japanese TV, there's no actual nudity, just plenty of bust and shots of her in underwear. As wonderful as that is, we hope she one day goes the full hog with a nude scene (basically, you have to go to Netflix if you want to see female celebrities naked). With her scenes in a more recent episode of Himitsu o motta ...

     Read More     

Earlier in the week, we sang the praises of TV announcer Kasumi Mori, loving her sultry looks and intelligence. Now comes the gravure debut of someone who definitely has brains. Asa Kamiya (神谷明采) has done her first swimwear gravure shoot, which appears in the current issue (December 22) of Weekly Friday. Has Christmas come early this year? She is a fourth-year student in the economics faculty at the University of Tokyo, regarded as the most elite college in Japan. She won the Miss Todai beauty contest in 2020 and was Miss of Miss 2021, essentially crowning her as the most ...

     Read More     

Last week, we highlighted the stunning, athletic beauty (and body) of 55-year-old Fumie Nakajima. Many of you seemed to agree with our assessment. Today, it's time for Yoko Kumada. Regular readers will recognize the name. The 41-year-old gravure idol is now divorced (after alleged domestic violence and her suspected adultery) and has since worked at a hostess club (alright, it was essentially a publicity stunt for the club but the thought of Kumada serving us drinks had us in a tizzy). These days, Kumada is making her money through image videos and her latest DVD comes out later this ...

     Read More     

When Kasumi Mori posed for Anan magazine earlier in the year, she proved that female Japanese TV newscasters and announcers are just as sexy as gravure and fashion models (for more proof, see Akane Takiyama and Minami Tanaka -- now if only Mayuko Wakuda would go freelance and answer our prayers with a lingerie shoot!), and that Anan magazine remains one of the great producers of sensual shoots (as our summary of a decade of Anan celebrity shoots amply demonstrates). The freelance announcer is pushing on with her career as a model. The 28-year-old former TV Tokyo announcer who graduated from ...

     Read More