Kei Jonishi of the Osaka-based AKB48 spin-off idol group NMB48 has released a new semi-nude photo book, "21K".
The soon-to-be 22-year-old idol from Shiga is one of the most popular members of NMB48, alongside Sayaka Yamamoto and Miru Shiroma. "21K" is her second photo book. Released in February, it is set to propel Jonishi to further stardom. (That being said, at the moment the buzz is actually mostly about Nogizaka46's Mai Shiraishi and her photo book, "Passport".)
The photos include images of the serenely white and thin Jonishi standing with her chest exposed and her modesty covered ...
Today we wanted to resurrect to our Idol of the Week series, where we showcase a gorgeous lady from the pantheon of gravure idols (glamor models) in Japan.
This may not become a regular fixture like it used to be but we do spot some tempting examples every now and then. (For more gravure idols, check out our Tumblr account.)
Eri Oishi is one such: a fashion model, gravure idol and television "tarento".
With a slinky, sporty body, this "Heisei Venus" was born in Tokyo in 1993.
What really makes her stand out from the crowded market of tarento and gravure idols is that she is openly ...
A Japanese newswire article about sexual harassment among aspiring models and idols is doing the rounds, confirming what we've been saying for years.
Apparently, a government survey has shown that 26.9% of Japanese young female models and starlets have received "unwanted requests for sexually oriented photo shoots."
This comes hot on the heels of last year's controversy about widespread coercion in the porn industry.
In the first survey by the Cabinet Office on sexual abuse against young women, 7.7% of respondents had been offered contracts to become models or starlets.
Asked about ...
We love to see old favorites coming back into our lives -- and we love to see women who aren't 22 being celebrated for their beauty and older sex appeal.
And so we are delighted to see that Hiroko Sato is making a comeback, bush and all. The actress is best known for her early gravure career and nude scenes in such films as the low-budget A Night in Nude -- Salvation (2010) with Naoto Takenaka and directed by Takashi Ishii, who also made the soft-core porn films Flower and Snake with Aya Sugimoto, Sweet Whip with Yuki Mamiya, and Hello, My Dolly Girlfriend with Kokone Sasaki.
Sato is also a ...
You may recall our glee when advance images appeared showing busty gravure model Moemi Katayama fully in the buff -- bush and all -- for her new photo book, Rashin.
It's rare for a gravure model to make the switch to a hair nude shoot (okay, so she's wearing clothes but they are see-through, so this is basically full-frontal stuff) just as her career is starting to get going. Normally they wait until they are over 30 and things are not looking great for them, such as Haruna Yabuki did recently (though hair nudes were originally used by some stars to launch their careers).
Or ...
Are there still any famous ladies left in AKB48? That's a question we often ask ourselves these days. Well, yes and no. The big guns are basically gone but there are still popular idols.
And they are determined to stay in the public eye with eye-catching photo shoots.
Here are the idols of AKB48 like you've never seen them before: as wrestlers! Participants in the shoot were: Jurina Matsui, Sakura Miyawaki, Mion Mukaichi, Kaori Matsumura, Miru Shiroma, Haruka Shimada, Yui Yokoyama and Haruka Kodama.
The shoot was actually a promo for Tofu Puroresu (Tofu Professional Wrestling), a new ...
It's always a sad day when we spot news that our favorite gravure idols have got hitched.
Back in 2015 Yumi Sugimoto produced probably her sexiest and most naked photo book ever. "Chiamata" showed off quite a bit of flesh, even if it wasn't quite full-frontal stuff.
Well, enjoy those images for all they are worth, folks. That photo book may well be her last, assuming the common pattern repeats here. Sugimoto has now gotten married to a man four years her junior after around a year of dating, it emerged at the end of December. Typically gravure idols stop working as glamor models ...
Here is an awesome, belated Christmas present for you folks: nude photos of Moemi Katayama that have leaked ahead of the official release of her new photo book out next year.
The 26-year-old Katayama has become increasingly better known over the past 1-2 years. She released her first photo book in September and the new one, "Rashin", comes out on January 5th. Since 2015 she has been a favorite gravure idol for weekly tabloid magazine shoots, and even appeared in a Kirin ad in May.
This, though, is by far the most explicit the busty G-cup gravure idol has ...
One of our ongoing preoccupations is what happens to gravure and music idols after they stop being famous. Once they have faded into obscurity, how do they survive? Get married and become homemakers? Go into hostessing or even prostitution? Or a totally different line of work?
Some evidently advance into careers in AV.
We also previously looked at the case of Yuka Kosaka, who now runs a nursery school in Chiba.
Others make the unexpected leap into mainstream politics.
Here is another cautionary tale.
The tarento Hanako Takigawa is only 28 but already has had a troubled, up-and-down ...
It's the video that launched a thousand imitators (and counting).
Pikotaro's PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen) video made "PPAP" one of the buzzwords of the year and inspired a whole meme industry.
No doubt it will blow over in a few weeks' time.
Until them we can enjoy the variations, not least this eye-opening one by gravure idol Jun Amaki.
The busty gal is best known for her "I cup" chest and being a petite 148cm. That's quite a combination. She's also a former member of the masked idols group Kamen Joshi.
She has created a version of Pikotaro's PPAP ...
