The actress Yumi Sugimoto is now 35 years old and first appeared in the Toei tokusatsu series Engine Sentai Go-onger, broadcast around 17 years old. From about that time, she established herself as a gravure idol too, despite not having the chops in terms of cup size.
She enjoyed a prolific gravure career throughout her twenties, perhaps peaking with her semi-nude photo book Chiamata in 2015.
This was followed two years later by her marriage to a younger man, which seemed to signal the end of her gravure output -- but she got divorced in 2019.
Sugimoto appears in the February 17 issue of ...
Celebrating the fortieth anniversary of top gravure magazine Weekly Friday, the Grademy Award was announced last autumn and votes collected online to find what was billed as Asia's top gradol.
Almost all of the 232 candidates were Japanese, though, so the "Asian" claim was slightly disingenuous. But quibbles aside, the public votes have been counted and the results -- and awards -- finally announced online earlier last week.
The top prize -- billed as Most Valuable Gradol -- went to leading gravure idol Ina Enohara.
Best Newcomer (also billed as Best Gradol Debut) was shared by ...
Here's some very good news for fans of gravure idol and actress Yuno Ohara, and we know that there are hundreds of thousands of them out there.
The 25-year-old gradol has just released her fourth photo book, which marks her fifteenth anniversary as an idol (she began her career as a dancer way back in 2009.
Titled √25 and published on February 7 by Shogakukan, it's her most nude release to date.
And what's really interesting is that the model teamed up with Okinawan actress Fumi Nikaido for the photo book.
The 30-year-old Nikaido is an established photographer in her own right, ...
Aging like a fine red wine, the former Japanese TV announcer Mariko Seyama has proven year by year that older is not only better, but more provocative.
The mature gravure star has continued to strip even as she reached her forties. Indeed, it wasn't until she arrived at that milestone that she showed us her naked breasts, after years of semi-nude shoots.
Seyama is a former announcer for NTV who moved into gravure in 2012. The Tokyo native is a graduate from Keio University, one of the most prestigious colleges in Japan. She is also divorced, having been married from 2009 to 2015. Her ...
The new photo book by Yuki Kashiwagi has reminded us that a bunch of idols and models have made similar comebacks of late, some doing it just for kicks and others hoping to ride nostalgia to a quick yen.
Other examples include Reiko Kato, Serina, Chinatsu Wakatsuki, Rina Aizawa, Aya Ueto, and Haruka Ayase.
Another comeback that might be on the cards is Aki Hoshino.
Now aged 47, Aki Hoshino posted a video of herself in a swimwear (in what seems to be a sponsored post for Alexia Stam, a swimwear brand) and she looks great for a middle-aged woman.
Many fans commented that they want her to ...
Former AKB48 idol Yuki Kashiwagi appears on the cover of the current issue of Weekly Young Jump, making a striking gravure comeback as she launches her latest photo book, Time Capsule.
The book went on sale on January 29 and brings together 14 years of shoots for Weekly Young Jump. Apparently it's so packed with photos that it weighs a full kilogram (about 2.2 pounds). Yukirin did her first cover shoot for the weekly magazine way back in 2010.
You'll have to get the magazine if you're a true fan, though, since the cover shoot isn't included in the new photo book, which is her fourth ...
The gravure idol and actress Ayano Sumida has released a statement about inappropriate physical contact at a launch event she recently held.
On January 27, Sumida posted on social media about "contact" with someone that wasn't included in the "perks" that attendees had purchased.
The incident took place on January 25 at a launch event for her third DVD, Secret Paradise. She was coy about the exact details and circumstances, but we are assuming that there was some degree of physical contact that was inappropriate or not allowed (perhaps a hug or attempted hug).
"Should such cases arise, I ...
A few years ago, we reported on the career of gravure idol Yuka Kosaka, who abruptly quit the industry in 2009, gained a lot of weight, made a brief comeback (with a semi-nude shoot), and then settled into a quieter life as a nursery school teacher from the age of 24.
She did that for around a decade now, though the 39-year-old has also restarted some activities in the entertainment industry since last year. It seems she no longer works as a teacher due to health issues and instead focuses on entrepreneurial projects launching new schools, consulting for schools, and doing counseling. She ...
An Anzu is advertised as a former gravure idol who has made the switch to adult video.
These cases are actually quite common and sometimes it's just marketing guff, or -- as recently with Kanna Seno -- the initial gravure "career" was already planned as a publicity boost for the AV career.
An Anzu does seem to have worked in gravure, but either under another name or without much success. We could find some info on her first image DVD, released last July, but not much else.
Boasting I-cup breasts, it's not difficult to see why 20-year-old An Anzu would appeal to porn producers.
Her ...
In December 2023, we wrote about the incredible Fumie Nakajima, who proves that age is no obstacle to having a slender and sexy body, and continuing to release gravure videos and do photo shoots.
Now aged 56, Fumie Nakajima has released another photo book. Far from hiding her age, the publication embraces it: the title is simply #56. The cover features Nakajima in an alluring, semi-nude pose, with a wet shirt clinging to her body and with her panties half pulled down.
Last year, she marked 35 years since her debut. Having once retired from gravure at the age of 39, she made a comeback at ...
