The travails of former music idol Ai Kago continue.
Once a member of long-running female idol group Morning Musume -- she was part of the same generation as Rika Ishikawa and Nozomi Tsuji -- she departed the group in 2004, joining other groups like Hello! Project.
Such young female idols are forced to maintain a wholesome image but this was hard for Kago, who clearly has a rebellious streak. She was suspended from her agency for underage smoking (oh, the horror!) in 2006 and dismissed the next year.
In 2009, she had an affair with an actor and his wife sued them both. In the early 2010s, ...
When you use a sex worker of some description in Japan, they may well be operating under yakuza protection if they belong to a brothel or other such service. This is especially the case with sex workers and services based out of areas like Kabukicho in Tokyo.
Many sex workers in Japan are actually Chinese, especially the ones you see plying their trade out in the open on the streets of Dogenzaka or who work at venues advertised as "Chinese massage" or a similar euphemism. They too are probably (hopefully?) protected in some way from police, rivals, and violent customers.
If a client gets ...
For those readers who don't have a Netflix subscription or missed the publicity, they may not have seen The Outsider, in which Jared Leto plays the titular character who becomes involved in the Yakuza in postwar Japan.
Well, judging by the tepid response the film has attracted so far, you may not want to see it -- unless, that is, you count yourself among beautiful co-star Shioli Kutsuna's legions of fans and want to see her naked.
The lovely, innocent-looking Shioli Kutsuna (or Shiori Kutsuna) gets as close to actual nudity as she ever has (as far as we know). Incidentally, Kutsuna is ...
What are the dark secrets of the entertainment industry in Japan? Here is our subjective list.
1: Sex
Despite the control exerted by talent agencies over idols' private lives (who they can and cannot date, or in the case of some groups, not letting them date or have sex at all), the truth is that there is plenty of sex happening -- it's just not all that pleasant or consensual.
Makura eigyo (sleeping with people to get ahead, like the casting couch) is rampant at many levels of the gravure and idol industry, with female models and entertainers frequently having sex with older male managers ...
Korean-born model Youn-a (28) is marrying again this autumn, just over a year after divorcing a Korean businessman.
Her new partner and future husband is a Kotaro Shiba (40), head of office48, an agency connected to the company behind AKB48, AKS.
So far, not so Tokyo Kinky, you might think, though Youn-a is a bit of a hottie. Perhaps she will be appearing in the idol group in the future? That would be a real reason to listen to their "music" at last...
However, Kotaro Shiba is rumored to be connected to the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza, as we previously ...
Here's something we always suspected!
A Japanese tabloid has published rumors that the founders of AKB48 may not simply be sickening old men with a liking for teenaged girls -- but have close connections with the yakuza, the Japanese mafia.
Given that the Japanese government is using public funds for its risible "Cool Japan" schemes, which have Yasushi Akimoto as an advisor, essentially this means the government has been paying a mafia-related organization to promote the nation.
The weekly Shukan Shincho has published a picture and allegations that one of AKB48 founders Kotaro Shiba ...
It was just the other day that we blogged about sexy singer Takako Uehara getting her knickers in a twist about being accused of mafia links.
Is any sexy celebrity in Japan safe from the shadow of the mob? It seems not. Now it's the turn of Erika Sawajiri, long a troubled and tempestruous celebrity. Erika is still a mere sprig of a gal at 25 but has already retired from the entertainment industry and returned once. But now a magazine has dug up and published photos of an 18-year old Erika in a Roppongi club with an allegedly yakuza-connected guy.
Half French, half ...
Singer and model Takako Uehara (28) is suing the editors of a magazine for 30 million yen ($400,000) after claims it made in an article about disgraced comedian Shinsuke Shimada.
Shimada famously had to resign after allegations that he has had long connections to the yakuza -- it's well known that the whole entertainment industry in Japan is in cahoots with the mafia -- and Shimada, no stranger to scandals, was made an example of (probably so he could go and do other things, including reportedly hoping to enter politics!).
In the article in the September issue of weekly tabloid Shukan ...
