The recently retired porn star Nanami Kawakami has announced her pregnancy and marriage.
The 29-year-old shared the news with fans on August 1 via social media, though she says she actually married her partner on July 7. Her due date is next January.
The announcement tweet included charming pictures at the beach, with her partner (whose face is hidden) slipping a ring on her finger and Kawakami beaming at the camera with her ring on.
Kawakami, who has been candid about the financial pitfalls of her line of work, retired at the start of 2022 after a successful career lasting her ...
Riko Suzuhara (鈴原りこ) is a 30-year-old gravure idol who is also apparently a certified and practicing caregiver.
She could use those nursing skills to intimate effect in the bedroom, no doubt. Just imagine what she could do with those firm hands of hers!
A little later than most gradols, Suzuhara has got a decent boost to her career with the release of her debut photo book, coming out on September 1 from Kodansha. (She didn't make her gravure debut until age 26.)
As a promo, Weekly Gendai recently published some preview images showcasing the photo book, which is an ambitious nude ...
We've bemoaned the crowded and competitive state of the gravure industry before. A gradol may grace the cover of Weekly Playboy or Young Jump one week and, just a few months later, be hung out to dry as yet another young lady in a bikini takes their place.
It's hard to keep up with all the new arrivals on the scene and while many gravure idols try to expand into acting and TV work without explicitly "graduating" from glamor modeling, some do more formally retire. But even this is often done without much fanfare.
Perhaps it gets announced on social media and then that's it: the idol is ...
If you follow the Japanese adult video newbies closely, you may have noticed the porn debut of Moeka Marui (円井萌華) back in May for SOD Create. Though her exact age is unknown, Marui was formerly a child model and music idol under the name Moeka (萌華).
She apparently had a following in Taiwan and would travel to appear in events there, though they seem like relatively small street performances. (So the next time you see an idol performing on the street in a Japanese city, imagine their future career in porn!)
Here is Marui back in her Taiwanese days.
She has so far ...
The graduation of various leading members and the restrictions placed on live, in-person events by the pandemic have greatly reduced the presence of AKB48 and its sister groups in popular culture. The groups retain strong followings, of course, but the days when AKB dominated advertising and TV shows seem over.
As such, even the little scandals seem to pass us by. We missed that Yuka Suzuki (鈴木優香) was forced to graduate AKB48 last September due to an alleged romance (oh, the horror!) that first emerged in spring 2021.
Following her ignominious departure from AKB48, Yuka Suzuki ...
One of the fascinations of this blog is with the afterlives of idols, whether music, gravure, or porn. What do the hordes of women do after their (frequently brief) moment in the spotlight is over?
Kizuna Sakura was active in adult video from 2014 to 2020. Now aged 32, she has begun the next stage of her left and career by opening a Niigata-themed ramen restaurant in December 2020 in Tokyo's Suginami ward.
She funded her enterprise through an ambitious crowdfunding campaign, which included such perks as a one-on-one talk and even a "fake wedding ceremony" and one-night stay at a hot spring ...
How consensual is porn?
The upcoming change to the age of adulthood in Japan and its implications for people signing contracts to do porn has prompted politicians to scramble to make legislation protecting teenagers from embarking upon an adult video career. (Opposition lawmaker Ayaka Shiomura, however, has faced male laughter when addressing the issue in the Diet.)
The situation has reignited the issue of consent and coercion in porn, with some arguing that women as young as 18 or 19 shouldn't be allowed to sign contracts independently due to the complex nature of the legal clauses and ...
Michaela Wako Sato (佐藤ミケーラ倭子) is the proud owner of probably the longest tongue in Japan, and possibly one of the longest in the world.
The 25-year-old is a former fashion model and member of idol group Idoling!!!, whose members included Ai Okawa and Rena Sato. As her name suggests, she is biracial (half Japanese, half Brazilian).
She is also very attractive, which gives her a consideration advantage when it comes to standing out among the host of other online personalities, each with their own schtick competing for clicks.
Naturally, such a long tongue has its merits -- ...
Former porn star Saki Otsuka has reached a settlement with an adult toys maker over the sale of products featuring her.
Though seven years have now passed since Otsuka -- once a top performer in the JAV industry -- retired, "new works" continued to appear on the market and be sold without her consent. Otsuka had sued, seeking damages (and, of course, to set a precedent for other ex-performers).
The legal challenge has taken two and a half years, but was apparently concluded in January, reports Bengo 4.
Otsuki first learned that "new" products were being released with her name and image in ...
One of the regular themes of this blog is the after-lives of gravure idols, models, adult video performers, and so on. What happens after they retire? What can do they do after their time -- often only brief -- in the limelight?
We had Reiko Nagaoka (永岡怜子) on our radar for a while in this regard, because she presents an interesting example. And then her story took an intriguing twist recently and we felt it was time to share.
She first worked in gravure in the 2010s under a different name: Una Shirakawa (白川卯奈).
Shen then switched to Reiko Nagaoka in around 2016, ...
