Former nude model Kazuko Iwamoto reveals truth behind attack on ex-lover

Long-time readers may remember the story from 2019 of Kazuko Iwamoto, the nude model and actress arrested for attacking her lover at a train station after he tried to end their relationship. The 43-year-old had, it seems, revealed to him that she was pregnant, but her lover was a married cad who wanted to make a getaway at the resort town of Atami.

It was of the most bizarre stories we have ever run and, to be honest, pure catnip: a beautiful jukujo at the height of her fame seemingly caught in a destructive relationship, turns desperate — and the result is a sensational (though thankfully, non-fatal) crime.

Following her arrest, Iwamoto disappeared from public view (with the exception of a nude video that was re-released with suspiciously good timing to cash in on her notoriety).

But she’s made a comeback of sorts now, having recently given an interview to Shueisha Online in January, followed by several other media outlets. She even appeared at a talk in March organized by a MILF snack bar in Shinbashi.

Spa! used the opportunity to snag a two-hour interview with Iwamoto, who finally spilled the beans on the Atami incident six years ago.

Her lover was an investor who lived in Atami, but had stopped replying to messages or phone calls. Iwamoto says she had no choice but to go to Shizuoka to find him in person.

Since the incident, she has been contacted by various people who said that her ex-lover had duped them out of money. (One such person also attended the talk and told his story.)

Iwamoto doesn’t mince her words about her own naivety, though. “My family was wealthy — my parents ran their own business — and I was raised in comfort, not knowing much about the ways of the world. I didn’t know that I should doubt people.”

When she got to Atami, she found her lover taking a walk with his wife. It sounds like something out of a TV drama. It was then that Iwamoto realized that he was married, even though he had promised to marry Iwamoto — and their respective parents had even met at a hotel.

It was then that her lover asked her mother for ¥30 million to tide over his business while it was waiting for a reimbursement to come through. Incredibly, he claimed that he had been deceived by a partner and had lost millions of yen.

He didn’t return the money. “When it became clear that he was a fiancé who doesn’t give back a loan, and then I told him I was pregnant, he fled. I searched for him, wanting to talk in person and get him to apologize.”

Apparently, when Iwamoto had collapsed after chasing her lover in Atami, his wife came told her to have an abortion. A day before the infamous incident in which she attacked her lover with a utility knife, Iwamoto had a risky late-term abortion.

Iwamoto spent nearly five months she spent in police detention before she was transferred to the psychiatric wing of a prison in Shizuoka for several months. Despite her long stay behind bars, though, she was ultimately never charged with a crime.

Her mother was so happy that Iwamoto was not charged that she didn’t pursue getting her own money back, wanting nothing more to do with her daughter’s ex-lover.

She released a photo book in 2020 (which totally passed us by) but then fell out with her management agency, bringing her first comeback to an end. She spent four years at her hometown in Tottori, working at a local electronics store. Iwamoto then moved to Osaka last November and relaunched her career in earnest.

This is what she looks like now.

The 49-year-old is today working on her autobiography and employed at a high-end men’s beauty salon, where she is popular among the patrons. The salon offers a 180-minute private session. Iwamoto hopes to make a full comeback in the entertainment industry but says she also wants to contribute to raising awareness about fraud.