What are the dark secrets of the entertainment industry in Japan? Here is our subjective list.
1: Sex
Despite the control exerted by talent agencies over idols' private lives (who they can and cannot date, or in the case of some groups, not letting them date or have sex at all), the truth is that there is plenty of sex happening -- it's just not all that pleasant or consensual.
Makura eigyo (sleeping with people to get ahead, like the casting couch) is rampant at many levels of the gravure and idol industry, with female models and entertainers frequently having sex with older male managers ...
There are five open secrets about the Japanese entertainment industry: the Yakuza are heavily involved; pedophilia and child abuse exists at Johnny's; Gravure and music idols have to have sex to advance; idols have plastic surgery; and drugs are rampant.
Ironically, it's the latter that is the most controversial -- and carries the harshest penalties if exposed.
Ai Takabe has become the latest minor celebrity to face a drug scandal. The 27-year-old has been been busted with possessing cocaine that police found during a search (quite why they were conducting a search in the first place is ...
We've been sitting on this story for a few days to see how it would pad out. And it just keeps on getting better and better.
The tabloid Shukan Bunshun has been publishing a series of photos of AKB48 manager Tomonobu Togasaki smoking (legal) drugs and meeting girls at love hotels.
Togasaki is photographed smoking H Zone 12th, a legal stimulant, in a stairwell of a posh bar in central Tokyo.
Though it is not suggested -- yet! -- that 40-year-old Togasaki has been grooming the hundreds of idols and wannabe idols he manages or auditions for his own sexual predilections, the tabloid has ...
Hardly the biggest surprise of the week but a worthy topic of news, Tokyo Reporter has highlighted an interesting report of the arrest of a Nigerian club owner arrested by police for drugging and stealing from his customers.
Officers took Emanuel John, the 44-year-old manager of Little Cat, which is located in the in the red-light district of Kabukicho, and three hostesses into custody on theft charges.
On April 20, a hostess allegedly spiked a vodka drink served to a 43-year-old male customer with a sleeping powder. His cash card was then stolen from his wallet and taken to a nearby ...
Three female celebrities were arrested in Seoul by local police on March 13th for use of the illegal drug propofol ("milk shot") from dozens to hundreds of times over the past two years.
Park Si-yeon, Lee Seung-yeon, and Jang Mi-inae are the latest actresses to be investigated and charged. Yeong Hyeon has also been fined for use of the drug.
Although propofol has many medical uses around the world, in Korea its frequent use as an hallucinogenic agent led to it being defined as a mind-altering drug in 2011.
Its use is an open secret in the entertainment world in Korea and scandal ...
Noriko Sakai, the former popular singer and tarento whose career was ended a few years ago by the shocking revelation that she and her then husband were drug fiends, is currently trying to make a comeback following a spell in prison.
She faces big problems, not least the distrust of the public, broadcasters and the all important corporate sponsors. She is also laced with billions of yen in debt from her previous agency due to repayment of fees from sponsors for breaking contracts.
She is appearing in a play this December, which should give her some money, though it is said not to be ...
Following scandals with drugs -- including another one recently where she fled abroad for a while -- H-cup idol Minako Komukai (小向美奈子) shows no sign of giving up.
After losing her job through telling the truth about the industry (that idols have to have sex to progress into the mainstream entertainment world), previously she turned from idol to stripping, with a very enthusiastic reception.
Then she went the soft core root and appeared in some cheesy light BDSM-themed sex DVDs.
Now she has really thrown her towel in with the big girls. Soft on Demand (SOD) has ...
Former actor Manabu Oshio has written a letter detailing his despair, according to tabloid claims. The fifty-page document has been released via his lawyer and is being nicknamed "note from hell."
Oshio is, of course, the guy who last summer was arrested for fleeing his Roppongi apartment. Not such a big deal, right? Well, unfortunately there was a dead girl in there. And naked. And a hostess. Dead from an overdose.
Yep, not a good combination. Of course, the media paints Oshio as the bad boy: promiscuous, arrogant and obviously guilty. The girl was just a victim. Um, if a hostess was ...
