Nogizaka46 has announced that Renka Iwamoto will be suspending her activities with the group after "private photos" leaked online. Those photos show the 20-year-old, a member of Nogizaka46 since 2016 (when she was all of 12), posing with and hugging a man who is presumed to be a boyfriend. Nogizaka46 and such Sakamichi Series groups, like those in the AKB48 Group, have a quasi-official no-boyfriends policy for their members, because it destroys the illusion for their fans that they could date the idol one day. It is not clear at this point how the photos leaked. Instead of publicly ...

It feels like it's been quite some time since we've got excited about a current member of the once-might idol groups like Nogisaka46 or AKB48. Sure, the former members give us plenty of material to wax lyrical about on these digital pages -- we're looking at you, Haruka Kodama and Ruka Kitano -- but are we alone in lacking a crush among current members? Perhaps that's going to change soon. Renka Iwamoto (岩本蓮加) is still just 20 years old but a veteran of Nogizaka46, having joined the group way back in 2016. She's now developed into a mature young woman, as her debut solo photo book, ...