On November 12, idol Moga Mogami announced that she is pregnant on her personal blog. This should not be surprising, given that she is now 31 -- an age when many women in Japan would be pleased to start a family. But she's not married, nor was a marriage announced at the same time. Unlike a large number of prominent celebrities in Japan, she is not planning to marry the father of the child. Such shotgun weddings (or dekichatta kekkon) are common here, since the need for contraception is frequently ignored, though also because it is sometimes the only way to force the all-powerful ...

Photographer Yuji Susaki has got together with Akihabara idol unit Dempagumi.inc to create a photo book with 100 cosplay models. The "Dempa Models x 100 Cosplay" collection goes on sale August 8th. We only just blogged about another Susaki cosplay photography project and it seems he is very much in the news these days. The Dempagumi.inc girls (who include Moga Mogami and Nemu Yumemi) are featured in student uniforms, nurse uniforms and more. The publishers hope to sell 5,000 copies in the first run. While Dempagumi.inc may not have the profile of the ubiquitous AKB48, it has ...