We recently wrote about ex-AKB48 idol Satomi Kaneko's retirement, noting how she had carved out quite a striking career as a sexploitation actress and nude model after her brief stint with the group. In general, after leaving one of the AKB or Sakamichi groups, or any idol group for that matter, the surest way to cement your status is to do more provocative shoots in gravure magazines, release photo books, and branch out into fashion modeling and TV gigs, either acting or presenting. Only a lucky few land "serious" acting roles (perhaps only Atsuko Maeda and Yuko Oshima spring to mind), but ...

The afterlives of idols is an ongoing theme of this blog. What happens to those music and gravure stars after they call it quits? Some, of course, go into porn, like Yotsuha Kominato (Rikako Inoue). Others, like AKB48's Risa Naruse (Haruna Aisaka), marry a celebrity. Many go on to do ordinary jobs. Here's a slightly more unusual take on that: Manaka Shida, formerly of Keyakizaka46 (now called Sakurazaka46 since 2020), is now a Ginza hostess. Of course, it's well known that many adult video and gravure idols are doing hostessing on the side anyway. Some have also announced this publicly ...