Ex-gravure idol and political candidate Mari Takahashi dies, aged 27
The former gravure idol and one-time political candidate Mari Takahashi has sadly died at the age of 27.
Her death was announced on September 9 and reported in the Japanese media today, though she died last week on September 4.
A graduate of the prestigious Keio University, Takahashi worked briefly as a gravure idol in around 2020 and also as a TV announcer and at an IT consultancy. She was also a finalist for the Miss Japan beauty contest.
She was briefly the official Democratic Party for the People candidate for a seat in a Tokyo constituency in the House of Representatives of Japan election held in April this year.
Her promising political career was nipped in the bud in February when a minor scandal broke out over allegations that she had worked as a hostess and received social welfare.
She was very quickly dropped by her party as their candidate, though Takahashi said in a tearful video that she had believed everything she had done was legal. She had even filed tax returns and also clarified that she had only received welfare while she was a young student, not during the period she worked as a hostess. (At the time, we were disgusted by the hypocrisy of her party, whose senior male members almost certainly receive lots of kickbacks and undeclared income, not to mention frequent hostess clubs themselves, and yet treated her like contaminated goods.)
She also apparently dated singer Noeru Kawashima from Travis Japan for six years, according to tabloid reports in March, but their relationship ended when she was dropped by her party the previous month.
Takahashi posted a series of old vacation pics to her Instagram in June but had largely disappeared from public view. She had deleted her YouTube channel and X/Twitter account, presumably due to the fallout from the online bashing she received in Tuesday.
No cause of death has been announced but it is thought that she took her own life. Questions will surely now be asked about her unfair treatment, especially by netizens and certain public commentators like Naoki Hyakuta, and the way in which her party did not support her.
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5 Comments
What a tragic loss. Her blood is on Japan’s hands.
this is the reality of the japanese, on the surface we praise these ppl and sings all the good things about them.. she was drop by the party consist of old men that does much more than frequent these hostess bar. i think the last straw is that she is even betrayed by the BF that clearly just there to leech off her , and bail out as soon as she was dropped by her party..
@Lee Anthony Mroszak
it’s a loss but not a tragic one. she should’ve stayed out of politics
@Not sad
Agreed. Once you enter politics your past history will be examined with a fine-tooth comb, not just by tabloid journalists looking for a scoop, but also political opponents (both external and internal within one’s own party) doing oppo research.
Anyway the DPJ have just as much blame, firstly by not doing full due diligence on its candidates so scandals like this doesn’t happen in the first place, and for them not doing (or at least seen to be doing) a full, independent investigation before removing her. The issues concern some very old history, not some current incident like the UK election betting scandal a few months ago.
This is messed up. Japanese society can be so cruel.