Pitcher Katsuki Azuma admits affair with porn star Jun Suehiro

The latest celebrity scandal in Japan is the affair between baseball player Katsuki Azuma and popular porn star Jun Suehiro.

The 29-year-old Yokohama DeNA BayStars pitcher’s relationship with the 25-year-old JAV performer came to light in a Weekly Bunshun scoop late last week, after Suehiro was spotted visiting Azuma’s hotel.

Azuma has admitted the affair and apologized to his fans. He is married and has a daughter with his wife.

However, it still isn’t 100% clear if the woman was Suehiro, who has so far maintained silence on the matter. She looks like the porn star, who is known to be a Yokohama DeNA BayStars fan, so everyone has logically jumped to this conclusion, but it hasn’t actually been confirmed yet by either party.

While common in Japan, adultery is something of a fixation of the tabloid media, and hardly a week goes by without a new celebrity or figure from the business community being caught having an affair.

It’s just days since basketball player Sosuke Genda’s yearlong affair with a Ginza hostess was exposed. He is married (at least for now) to former Nogizaka46 member Misa Eto, with whom he has two children.

One of the biggest stories last autumn was of a leading politician’s affair with a former gravure model.

In general, the women face harsher repercussions. The CEO of outdoor camping gear brand Snow Peak was made to resign in 2022 for having a relationship with a married man, leading to her pregnancy. The gravure idol Miyu Murashima found her burgeoning career go into stasis when her affair with a basketball player was discovered. And the porn star Ai Hongo’s career was derailed after she and a streamer and YouTuber were caught having an affair (though this time, it wasn’t the tabloids but netizens who exposed the couple).

Male celebrities do face professional consequences if the affair has resulted in an abortion, as is the case currently with soccer player Akito Fukuta and, in the past, the voice actor Toru Furuya.