Haruka Kodama becomes hostess in Ginza

The former HKT48 idol Haruka Kodama has announced that she has worked as a hostess in Ginza.

After making a stunning comeback in gravure last year and released a digital photo book in January, is the model and actor in need of some regular work to keep herself in clover?

Not quite. Along with some ravishing pics of herself in full hostess garb, Haruppi released a video in which she “snuck” into a club for one night and got to try out a shift as a hostess.

The 28-year-old is playing a hostess in the April episodes of Tokyo Kanojo (a YouTube drama series), so she says she was gaining experience and doing research for her role by working at a club called Yoshi (クラブ予詩).

It just happened to be the mama-san’s birthday and she ended up drinking quite a bit and getting drunk.

There is actually nothing unusual here. It is an open secret that a lot of models, idols, actors, and porn stars work as hostesses (as well as sex workers or doing compensated dating). One example is Tenchim, who took to hostessing when her career hit a dry spell.

The only thing that is unusual is that Haruka Kodama, who is a savvy operator when it comes to self-promotion, has announced it and made this very public (and part of the publicity for her current acting role, natch).

But even this has a precedent. Recent examples of stars doing well-publicized stints as hostesses include porn stars Rui Sakuragi and Kirara Asuka, ex-AKB48 idol Kana Kobayashi, models Yoko Kumada and Yukina Kinoshita, and TV celebrity and model Kasumi Mori.

Kodama has also shared information about herself related to other open secrets in the entertainment world: mental health issues (she has bipolar disorder) and plastic surgery (she has has had multiple plastic surgery operations costing more than ¥10 million in total, starting from when she was a teen).

Sadly, because she was just doing this for a role, it is unlikely that Haruppi will continue working in Ginza as a hostess — unless her modeling and acting work starts to drop off, that is.