Former AKB48 idol Mariya Suzuki (鈴木まりや) has stripped off for a semi-nude photo book. The 29-year-old joined AKB48 in 2009 and transferred to Shanghai-based sister group SNH48 in 2012. She graduated in June 2017. She has since worked as an actress and maintained a following tens of thousands-strong on social media. "Merenda" (presumably derived from the Italian word meaning "nuncheon") is her debut photo book and is released on Monday. To promote it, Suzuki is appearing in gravure shoots in Flash, Entame, and Asagei Secret magazines. The project represents her first attempt at a ...

Is this Chinese idol about to give her Japanese counterparts a run for their money? Ge Jiahui (葛佳慧) was born in 1995 in Nanjing. She was recently featured in a Japanese weekly magazine and here are some highlights from the shoot. The 24-year-old is now going by the name of Juri (じゅり) in Japan. In addition to her modeling and singing, she is apparently also a student at the prestigious Keio University. She used to be a member of SNH48's Team NII from 2017 to 2019, when she graduated -- hopefully to bigger and better things. Now this is what we call soft power. Why ...