Dating apps like Tinder are ways to meet Japanese girls. There's always the chance that you will meet the girl of your dreams, your future wife, your next hookup -- or even a celebrity. Former AKB48 idol and model Rina Hirata has shared publicly that she is using dating apps to look for a partner. She didn't disclose which one(s) she uses -- we imagine it's not the app for otaku -- but she hasn't had any luck so far. "I met about 10 guys but none of the dates went well," the Arizona-born hottie shared at a recent event in Tokyo to launch her latest gravure image DVD, Showa ...

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The model, occasional actress, and former AKB48 music idol Mariya Nagao continues to get more alluring the older she gets. Slinky. Cheeky. Sexy. Mariya-chan has got it all in abundance. On the verge of 30 (she hits that magic number in March next year), she has thankfully not gone the way of most AKB idols and disappeared into the ether, but still fields regular invites to do gravure photo shoots, model jaw-dropping lingerie, and publish photo books. In recent months, she has been in the gossip columns because the tabloids found out that she has a boyfriend who is a former host. In early ...

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In a recent interview with Aera, the former AKB48 idol Nana Okada (岡田奈々) has come out as nonbinary. They don't explicitly also come as bisexual but the 26-year-old does say they are attracted to both men and women, and that they dated a woman back in 2017 (during their tenure in AKB48, which started in 2012). As readers will remember, Okada was fired from AKB48 over a dating scandal in 2022. Until then, she had been one of the most popular members of the idol group. For a more in-depth analysis of the interview and what Okada reveals, we recommend this thread. Okada is currently ...

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It's no secret that the Tokyo Kinky team has a thing for Mariya Nagao. The former AKB48 hottie now works as a model, actress, and general TV celebrity. And though it's hardly a surprise that a woman of her age, beauty, and social opportunities would not have lovers, we can't help but feel a bit peeved and sad at the news that broke recently about her new boyfriend. Apparently, Mariyagi is in a relationship with a former Kabukicho host, having met through a mutual friend. Fresh off releasing a ravishing photo book earlier this year, she's been spotted by weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun in ...

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We recently wrote about AKB48 idol Mion Mukaichi's somewhat surprising decision to do a semi-nude photo book while still a member of the supergroup. As we mentioned in our post, most music idols wait until graduating before posing semi-nude or nude. And in fact, they are often forced to do something like that to build any sort of career in a crowded marketplace. A case in point is the ravishing Satomi Kaneko, who carved out a name for herself as a provocative, sensual model after a brief stint in AKB48 in 2007. She started doing gravure in 2014 after an acting role in a sexploitation movie ...

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With music sales down, fewer meet-and-greet events like before, and far less general public interest in its current members (which means fewer TV appearances and fewer lucrative advertising campaign contracts), AKB48 is in, well, perhaps not quite a state of decline but certainly a period of less prominence in popular culture compared to the glory days of the early 2010s. Is this why its members are doing semi-nude photo shoots even before graduating the group? The AKB overlords used to be very exact about how much flesh the members could show, determined to keep things tantalizing and ...

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Former AKB48 idol Nana Owada is already celebrating her tenth anniversary in the entertainment world, even though she's still just 23 years old. Her new photo book marking her decade-long career, encounter, comes out June 15 and the previews are setting the internet on fire. One image features a curvy Nana Owada standing naked in a bath with her arms covering her breasts. In other shots, she shows off her naked back, including a great pic where she's lying nude on a bed, though sadly only the top of her butt is actually visible. In another photo, she's sitting nude on a bed with ...

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Just a few days ago, we were celebrating the return to gravure of Rika Adachi and ex-AKB idol Haruna Kojima, and now comes news of another gravure homecoming (of sorts). Clearly 'tis the season for it. The weather is certainly hot enough, at least in Tokyo. Another AKB48 alumna who has moved on to acting and fashion modeling in subsequent years, Mariya Nagao, is dipping her very delightful toe back into gravure. Though she has continued to do lingerie shoots, she doesn't do full-blown gravure as much as she used to do (though she did do a shoot for Friday in February and for Spa in ...

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The former AKB48 idol Haruna Kojima has returned to gravure with her first shoot in six years. She appears in a cover shoot for Young Magazine's May 1 issue, which went on sale this week. As you might expect, the return of the model -- now aged 34, well into luscious jukujo territory -- known for her pale skin and slinky body has generated reams of media coverage. The magazine shoot, which was done in Okinawa, features Kojiharu in alluring, summery swimwear. We've included some highlights here. Her last bikini gravure shoot was for Young Magazine in 2017. The comeback is ...

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Once one of the most famous idols in Japan, Mariko Shinoda has divorced her husband of four years. The 37-year-old announced the news on Instagram. A former AKB48 singer who later branched out into acting, Shinoda married an entrepreneur three years her junior in 2019 and gave birth to a daughter in 2020. As reported on this blog, rumors emerged last year that her marriage was on the rocks due to her alleged adultery. Her husband apparently took their child away from her for a time. The divorce follows a mediation process due to the alleged infidelity. In Japan, the aggrieved spouse can ...

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