On the cusp of 30, Yuki Kashiwagi still looks great in latest cover shoot

What ever happened to those original major AKB48 stars after they left the group and got older?

Most have disappeared from the limelight. Some have got married and started families. A select few like Atsuko Maeda and Yuko Oshima have switched into “serious” acting.

For Yuki Kashiwagi, there are still offers for major gravure shoots. She recently graced that cover of Young Jump and a generous 12-page spread inside.

This is impressive considering she is about to turn 30, which basically places her in jukujo MILF territory by the dubious standards of the gravure industry. Most of her peers have given up on hopes for cover girl gigs by this point in their careers/lives, but Yukirin was able to attractive the lucrative offer — and looks great in the results too.

Are we alone in thinking she is much hotter these days? We were never a particular fan of her before, finding her a little too willowy, but her age has brought maturity and allure to her skin and face. After all, we know that she is sexually experienced.

The curious thing is that Yukirin has not yet graduated from AKB48, despite building up a solo career and, let’s be honest, her age, which is a decade older than some of her peers. (She has left NGT48, though — a position she held concurrently with her membership of AKB48, which she joined in 2006, shortly after the supergroup was founded.)

Kashiwagi is to release a new photo book on July 15, when she turns 30. In early March, she released her first single in a CD format for over seven years — but not with AKB48.

She also did a cover shoot in 2020 for the first time in a while, delighting fans (and dropping more than a hint about how far she shaves downstairs). She has also recently reinvented herself as a lingerie model and designer.

Surely graduation is inevitable now? And once free of the AKS agency’s shackles, where will her career take her in her thirties?