Former AKB48 idol Natsumi Hirajima is well known and adored for her curvy body, which she has shown off to the world on many occasions.

In her latest provocative tactic, Natsumi (Nacchan) has demonstrated a range of different bras on her new YouTube channel.

In the nearly 16-minute video, Nacchan describes the experience of wearing the various bras, along with showing us how she looks in them. Don’t be shy about skipping ahead to the juicy parts.

At the time of writing, the video has almost 30,000 views after just a couple of days.

With large parts of the idol and entertainment industry shut down or subdued while the coronavirus rages, talent is taking to YouTube, social media, and other means to communicate directly with fans, and maintain their followings during the crisis. Nacchan accordingly launchd a YouTube channel at the end of July. This type of video is certainly one foolproof tactic to ensure that she isn’t forgotten even when her paid appearance work has perhaps temporarily dried up.

A Japanese TV show asked a man what he thought about gravure photo shoots. Nothing strange about this, perhaps, but the details are more unusual.

This man may look like a regular white-collar worker but his younger sisters are anything but: they are gravure idols and he was shown images from their provocative shoots.

The ladies in question are Tomoe Yamanaka (山中知恵) and Mayumi Yamanaka (山中真由美).

The brother laughs uncomfortably. “Yeah, I have mixed feelings about that.”

To our shame, we did not know that Tomoe Yamanaka and Mayumi Yamanaka were sisters, though now we clearly see the resemblance (both in terms of face and body type). Mayumi is the older sibling, at 27 years old, while 25-year-old Tomoe has released more photo books.

Here is Mayumi…

And here is Tomoe…

This got us thinking about other siblings working in gravure…

Regular readers will know of the Yanagi sisters: busty Yurina, who revealed that stunning chest for a movie, and Iroha.

There is also Marina and Erika, two haafu who started their career on TikTok.

More recently, the 23-year-old Sayaka Tomaru has been joined in the industry by her 18-year-old sister, Akari Tomaru (都丸亜華梨). They have posed for a joint summer-themed shoot in an issue of the magazine FLASH this month.

Is there anything more attractive than a smart, older woman?

Born in 1984, Yukari Oshima (大島由香里) is a former Fuji TV announcer who is now a freelance presenter. Adding some more to her résumé, she is now making a late transition into gravure with this semi-nude shoot that shows off her beautiful, kissable back in particular.

Here are some factoids about Yukari that may or may not make her even more attractive: she’s 36 (a ripe jukujo!), divorced, and a mother.

This is, as far as we know, her first proper gravure-style shoot.

The most successful recent example of a TV announcer transforming herself into a sex symbol and maintaining a good career as a presenter and general tarento would be Minami Tanaka, who released a bestselling photo book and is now one of the most popular celebrities in the land. She has found a sweet spot where she is beloved by both men and women.

Other memorable examples of TV announcers moving into gravure include Shiori Usui, Misumi Shiochi, Mariko Seyama, and Asako Tani. For some, their gravure career has ended up more fruitful than their original line of work.

Has Yukari Oshima, who is a relatively well-known announcer, left it too late, however? Or is she just the right age? We sense a photo book on the cards in the near future…

The gravure model Mirai Nishijima, known for her slinky body, recently posted a picture of herself enjoying a wash at a hot spring. Netizens with keen eyes, though, were able to spot something that she presumably thought was tastefully hidden: her left nipple, poking proud through the soap suds and asking for attention.

It’s attention we would be happy to provide!

Nishijima has since deleted the tweets (no doubt at the behest of her management), which actually showed pictures from a few years ago. Still, she shouldn’t feel too bad. It could have been much worse, as the model Asana Miyamoto found out a couple of years ago when she accidentally posted a sex tape to Instagram.

A regular Twitter user with over 54,000 followers, the 31-year-old Mirai Nishijima is no stranger to posting provocative and alluring images of herself. It’s one of the reasons her great butt is so well known and popular with fans.

But we think this is the first time she has shown her actual nude nipples, willingly or otherwise. More of this (literally), please!

So far, the highest-profile victim of COVID-19 in Japan has been the comedian Ken Shimura.

His death happened fairly early in the pandemic in Japan and since then infection numbers have risen quite a lot as the second wave hits, though deaths have not climbed to a scary rate (yet – touch wood).

As entertainers are continuing to work, filming things and so on, and coming into contact with a lot of people in the process, coronavirus infections are also disproportionately affecting the industry.

In recent days, several high-profile cases have appeared.

In early August, the busty gravure idol Jun Amaki announced on Twitter that has contracted the virus. She then spent a couple of weeks recovering at home and last week said that she had recovered. By chance, the weekly magazine Playboy featured a shoot (pictured below) with her in its issue released that week.

And then came news last week that former Keyakizaka46 member Yui Imaizumi, soon after the 21-year-old appeared on TV demonstrating a busty way to keep a man’s attention in an online drinking party. She is currently recovering at home.

And it was also announced last week that AKB48’s Shizuka Oya tested positive for the coronavirus. Needless to say, groups like AKB48 that are rooted in a USP as “the idols you can meet” are going to struggle in the post-COVID age when mass handshaking events are surely not going to happen or, even if they are held, will scare fans off.

Finally, for now, the other high-profile infection announced last week was one of our favorites: Fumika Baba.

Like Oya, Baba is recovering at home and we wish them all a speedy recovery.

We have yet to hear of any officially announced affections among adult video star, though we would be very curious to learn how the pandemic has affected porn productions. Watch this space for more…

Lesser-known gravure idol Hiroko Kamata has discovered a sure-fire way to boost your popularity in a crowded industry: take off your panties and then cover your pudenda with your hands.

Kamata was once a mainstream celebrity of sorts, hosting a TBS TV show for two years in the late 2000s.

She then branched out into music and releasing DVDs and photo books in the 2010s, but the 30-year-old is now on the look-out for ways to keep her career going by appealing to her thousands of social media followers. In a world of Photoshopped and iPhone-filtered pristine selfies, how do you stand out?

With these selfies that go one step further and raise the proverbial eyebrow, and no doubt make the person scrolling his phone on public transport hastily cover his screen.

The fact that she kept the upper half of her body clothed only adds to the allure. Other selfies where she is nominally wearing panties, though lifted up to hint at what is underneath, are another tactic that we shall have to teach our lovers.

Searching a bit further, it seems Hiroko has many ideas for gradols struggling in a competitive market. She also previously came up with a novel idea for merchandise: panties with a sexy ass print that allowed the wearer to transform into Hiroko Kamata’s butt. Sadly, the prototype was never made into a commercially available product but what a great idea.

We can think of a fair few other models we would like to create similar merchandise.

Probably the most famous and successful cosplayer in Japan right now, Enako is no stranger to provocative photo shoots. Heck, did you see her as a semi-nude mermaid?

But did she inadvertently reveal more than she and her managers intended in a recent photo shoot?

That’s what netizens are hoping and speculating about in their customary frenzy. Cue lots of zooming-in and squinting at screens.

The suggestion is that in this photo, Enako’s left nipple (or at least, the areola) is visible.

We’re not convinced, though the sight of 26-year-old Enako lying on a futon with plenty of cleavage on display is lovely enough in its own right.

Detailed detective work on the part of Japanese netizens have identified newbie porn star Sora Minamino (南乃そら) as Miyako Torase (虎瀬美也子), a former member of idol group Oyasumi Sekai.

Torase was active in Oyasumi Sekai from November 2018 to April 2019. If the netizens are right, it would seem that she struggled to find a post-idol career or otherwise specifically chose to enter AV with the right offer.

Sora Minamino released her first adult video title on September 1 with a splashy 149-minute feature (MIDE-812) from Moodyz.

The video, which nominally follows the newcomer over the 30 days prior to her porn inauguration, plays up to schoolgirl fetishes and Minamino/Torase’s innocent looks, though we are actually unable at present to find any accurate information on her age. Blurring reality and fiction in the quasi-documentary way that AV often does, Minamino in MIDE-812 is also meant to be an idol making the decision to switch to porn.

In the latest high-profile infections among celebrities in Japan, Nogizaka46 has announced that two of its members, Kaede Sato and Yuki (or Yuuki) Yoda, have contracted the novel coronavirus.

After a PCR test on August 27 for all the members of the idol group, the 22-year-old and 20-year-old were confirmed to have the virus, though not any symptoms of COVID-19 as of writing.

Yoda (pictured) released a photo book earlier this year.

As we recently reported, other top Japanese idols have contracted the virus, including gradols Jun Amaki and Fumika Baba. Another popular model, Fumina Suzuki, is also recovering.

These latest Nogizaka46 cases follow those from sister groups AKB48 (Shizuka Oya) and Keyakizaka46 (former member Yui Imaizumi).

AKB48 and such idol groups rely heavily on fan interaction for their appeals, not least in the “handshaking” meet-and-greet events that draw huge crowds. In the age of the coronavirus, the realism of continuing such a business model is up for debate.

The former AKB48 idol Kira Takahashi (高橋希来) has stripped naked for her first photo book, Twinkle, which comes out locally on September 10. That said, it is not, strictly speaking, a nude photo book, since the naked Takahashi still just about manages to protect her modesty.

She is wearing panties and her breasts are tucked up, squeezed yet hidden by her knees. We get plenty of side book, though.

It’s now September and, while humid, Tokyo is arriving at typhoon season. Nonetheless, the photo book brings a splash of late summer, complete with shots of the 19-year-old poolside in wet swimwear.

Kira Takahashi was a lesser-known member of the supergroup, debuting in spring 2015 as a kenkyusei and then graduating in April 2017. During her time in the group, she was known by slightly different kanji (高橋希良).

Once forgotten, now a star? We shall see.

Ayaka Miyoshi is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful actresses and models popular in Japan right now but, with some exceptions, she is rarely seen in overtly sensual or sexy shoots. For the most part, she keeps her clothes on and has settled for a more mainstream appeal.

That has all changed with her jaw-dropping appearance in the September 9 issue of Anan, confirming the magazine’s reputation for enhancing models’ careers with provocative shoots.

The shoot puts to shame the spreads you find in the tabloids and even gravure magazines like Weekly Playboy. It’s what you might expect an AV idol or gradol to do. Clad in expensive and revealing lingerie (and garters!), the shoot reveals that 24-year-old Ayaka Miyoshi has a decent bust and that her thighs are quite something when she is standing in a certain pose and clothed (barely) in amazing underwear. She even does the tebura “hand bra” pose that has become a staple. And now we also know that her butt is pretty pert and her stomach is perfectly toned. Wow. Just wow.

Miyoshi has a high profile these days, frequently appearing on television and recently landed a major lead role in a movie (in which she flashed her panties). Incidentally, her boyfriend was the late Haruma Miura.

The cover shoot is causing a real stir and we expect it to boost Anan’s sales considerably — a tactic it has often employed for these types of shoots, establishing a kind of “Anan culture” and helping the women who participate in transforming their image or boosting their career.

Though it has featured the likes of gradol Fumika Baba, which Miyoshi’s shoot partly recalls, Anan is particularly known for “upgrading” a popular model, actress, or female celebrity into a full-blown sex symbol through its sophisticated photo shoots. Past examples include Ryoko Yonekura, Minami Tanaka, Rino Sashihara, Yui Ichikawa, Nanao, Yuki Kashiwagi, and Maomi Yuuki. What is intriguing about all this is that Anan is aimed at female readers.

A video has leaked online allegedly showing the popular actress and model Elaiza Ikeda having sex with a male partner.

In the video, a woman who looks like Ikeda is shown riding an unknown man in the cowgirl position. Her face and hair is certainly similar in appearance to Ikeda and she also has large breasts (Ikeda is famously busty).

The footage is shot hamedori-style by the man as he enjoys the action. Lasting just over a minute, it ends with the woman leaning down and kissing the man passionately. We do not know when it was shot or when, where, or how it was first uploaded, though it seems to have appeared online around today, September 13. The video can be viewed here.

The 24-year-old Filipino-Japanese Ikeda is a sex symbol. Though she has never done nudity, she has got close with more than one sweaty, sensual scene. She is also now a mainstream star, fronting campaigns for major brands.

We should state categorically and clearly that we cannot verify if the sex tape is real or not. (And Ikeda has been misidentified by this blog in the past.) We are nominally just sharing something that a lot of netizens in Japan are talking breathlessly about right now. So please don’t attack us if you think the video is fake or you don’t think it’s actually Ikeda.

If it is real, though, it’s the biggest such scandal since the model Ayana Miyamoto accidentally uploaded to her social media account footage of the rapper KOHH giving her head. Unsurprisingly, her career has yet to recover.

Despite switching names on multiple occasions, Rara Anzai (aka Rion, aka Shion Utsunomiya) remains one of the most popular adult video stars in Japan.

She matches an angelic face with a stunning J-cup bust.

But porn stars are not always what they seem: cup sizes are sometimes inaccurate or volatile. And naturally, a woman’s body changes over the course of her life.

Have Rara’s breasts always been the same?

An unidentified netizen and JAV fan has decided to investigate this important question.

He or she (all right, it’s surely a “he”) came up with this montage of Rara Anzai in action in various porn releases, helpfully tagged with the year so we can clearly see how her breasts have developed from her debut in 2013 to her most recent titles this summer. We don’t think she has released a solo title since July. The second image is a preview shot from that release (SSNI822).

More generally, she seems to have gained some weight around the waist and her breasts have evolved from a bouncy, rounder shape to a longer, droopier one more like bakunyu (literally “explosive breasts”).

We could not identify the original source of this “breasts chronology” image, so feel free to contribute that info if you know for sure. We would be happy to provide credit where it is due.

There are nip slips and then there are nip slips.

The gravure idol Hikari Hashimoto (橋本ひかり) recently suffered an incident that falls squarely into the latter category.

For reasons known only to the people who devise Japanese television content, the idol was recently doing an interview (filmed live and remotely from her home) for the web channel AbemaTV in which she was supposed to whip off her top to reveal her bikini beneath. Unfortunately (or not), her breasts had come loose from the flimsy bikini top (or bikini-style bra) and her right nipple was firmly and delightfully visible as she pushed her chest out to show off her best assets. Little did she know that was actually presenting far more than she had expected.

The hosts looked flabbergasted but it’s highly possible the whole thing was staged.

The gradol world is overcrowded and someone like Hikari Hashimoto, who is apparently freelance and with no agency contract, has to do something to stand out. Certainly flashing her F cup qualifies as “something.”

Can she ride this notoriety to bigger and better things?

Apparently an actual law student, the 22-year-old describes herself as “the top law student gradol in Japan who strips.” She is about to release her second DVD.

Check out our tumblr page for more pictures of Hikari Hashimoto.

In a recent photo shoot, Yuki Kashiwagi (Yukirin) has seemingly revealed to her many admirers that she goes paipan downstairs.

The 29-year-old veteran member of AKB48 would seem to be hairless between her legs, either through shaving or waxing.

The photo in question is from the cover of a recent issue of weekly magazine Young Jump, released in Japan on September 10.

In a ten-page cover shoot for the weekly Flash out this week, Kashiwagi looks back on her career in the supergroup.

This month, Yukirin also appears in a lingerie shoot in Anan, for whom she did a memorable cover shoot several year ago.

So all in all, a busy month for the idol.

It would actually be interesting to get some data on what percentage of idols (gravure or otherwise) prepare for such lingerie and swimwear shoots by going paipan, or whether just trimming the bush is enough. And how many gravure shoots require digital touching up in the crotch area to remove “offending” signs of hairs?

In Japan, most women let their bush grow long, despite fastidiously shaving their bodily hair almost everywhere else.

The Weekly Playboy bar in Kabukicho was a big success back in 2017. We were reminded of it — and how few chances there are to encounter the adult industry in a bricks-and-mortar setting other than just a shop in the likes of Akihabara — when we read the exciting news that top Japanese porn production and distribution company Soft on Demand is opening what is essentially a sex theme park in Tokyo.

Ostensibly, the building will host restaurants and bars staffed by genuine porn performers, following the precedent established by Weekly Playboy’s bar, where real gravure idols served customers.

But SOD is promoting SOD Land, which sets to open in — where else? — Kabukicho on October 10, by describing it as an “adult theme park.” (We also love how this development flies in the face of the recent, very artificial attempts to gentrify Kabukicho and eliminate its “dirty” reputation by building movie theaters and hotels.)

SOD has already done something similar in Akihabara (in 2018) and Nakano (in 2019), opening small bars staffed by (sadly, fully clothed) adult video stars. But now they are raising the stakes (and the budget) with a five-floor complex.

The ground floor is the tamest, featuring a reception counter, purikura photo booth, gift shop selling DVDs and merchandise, and gacha capsule machines (because, well, Japan). But head to the basement and try out the bar staffed by female SOD employees and porn industry newcomers — since we all love to follow the debutants in the fast-changing world of Japanese porn.

Head upstairs to the second floor for the Kakubutsu Salon to enjoy a drink with a hostess or sex worker. The staff on hand here all apparently work in the fuzoku industry — a catch-all legalese covering everything from hostess bars and girls’ bars to erotic massage, strip clubs, soaplands, and brothels.

If you are visiting for the JAV stars, though, you will want to go straight to the third floor, where the SOD Syain Bar offers patrons the opportunity to drink with famous porn stars on the SOD roster. And if you want something more respectful and contemplative, the novel Silent Bar on the fourth floor, as the name suggests, bans private conversation so customers can instead focus on the stunning spectacle that is porn stars in swimwear — probably as naked as anyone actually gets in the building — preparing drinks behind a one-way mirror (a classic trope in Japanese porn).

And the best thing? It’s very accessible. There don’t seem to be any hidden charges or gray areas. Instead, customers pay a modest admission fee of ¥500 per 30 minutes and then only for the food and drink they actually order, rather than a padded bill including inflated prices for the drinks of hostesses and so on like at many premium clubs and dubious bars in Kabukicho.

Coronavirus restrictions notwithstanding, SOD Land is open from 5 pm to 10 pm. Incidentally, the building has installed various ventilation filters and systems as well as contact-less thermal sensing with AI facial recognition to make a visit safer in these strange times. We didn’t see any announcement about the porn stars wearing masks, which would surely detract from the main aim of a visit. A publicity image on the SOD news blog, however, suggests, the staff may wear transparent face shields.

Strangely, despite the announcement attracting lots of media coverage, we cannot find any official website or social media channels for SOD Land, and even the press release has now vanished. But if you want to go, here is the address in Japanese: 東京都新宿区歌舞伎町1-21-3 フルフルビル.

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 full gravure photography shoot.

She looks stunning in black lingerie (check out those gloves!) but even better naked in the bath, barely covering her modesty with her hands. Does that qualify as a tebura “hand bra” shot? It’s become something of a requisite for any photo book these days.

The photo book is coming out via an online photo book production and retail service called Photobook Base, which is run by a company that specializes in producing merchandise for YouTubers and Instagrammers.

Carving out a post-AKB career is notoriously difficult and only a few of the members of the supergroup have managed to achieve this — most of them the major idols who had established a reputation and following during the elections.

The rest — the dozens of minor members or “trainees” — are consigned to the dustbin of fandom upon graduation.

Recently, former AKB48 idol Kira Takahashi tried to boost her post-group fame with a semi-nude photo book — a strategy also adopted by Ayano Umeta (now working under then name Ayano Shimizu) and Nana Owada.

Airi Sato (佐藤あいり) is an up-and-coming gravure idol and actress whose recent shoots have seen her earn a following for a rare fusion: sensual, sexy allure; a genuine and clean beauty; and girl-next-door charm.

It’s an unusual ability to combine sultry come-hither looks with marriage-material middle-class respectability. But Airi Sato, who emerged first in 2018 when she won a prize at a beauty contest run by a magazine, seems to achieve it.

Specifically, the 23-year-old is praised by fans as an example of hattoshin (八頭身 or 八等身) — literally, “eight-heads body” — an classical ideal of beauty in Japan where the woman’s head should be an eighth the size of the body. In other words, she has a small face/head in a finely balanced proportion with her body (think Namie Amuro).

We’ve included a few pics from her recent shoots to showcase her beauty.

Like what you see? Check out more pictures of Airi on our tumblr page.

Incidentally, this Airi Sato is not to be confused with the transgender porn star or the professional (and cute) female mahjong player both of the same name (and kanji).

The Japanese gravure idol (glamor model) industry is a competitive and overly populated place, with idols coming and going in quick succession.

In order to maintain their status, idols are required to keep up strong social media presences. This, of course, means Twitter and Instagram, but increasingly also YouTube. Gradols have to be YouTubers these days, too.

The coronavirus has made this more urgent than before as splashy shoots and meet-and-greet events are either not having or only in far reduced numbers, decreasing the potential for idols to earn fees. Perhaps feeling the pinch, Natsumi Hirajima (formerly of AKB48) launched her own channel in July this year, but was a victim of her own success: one bra demo video, which really showed off her incredible bust, went viral, only for it to get taken down (perhaps for being too revealing). Thankfully, she has continued to make videos, albeit somewhat tamer ones.

We have searched for some of the most interesting and unusual examples of the new (and newish) channels currently floating around the digital corridors of YouTube…

Erina Kamiya

After changing her name (just the kanji, from 神谷えりな to 上矢えり奈) in April 2019, indicating a change in management, which can sometimes mean the end of a career, Erina Kamiya has sought to keep and cultivate her fandom through videos. She launched her YouTube channel in April 2019 and has over 100,000 subscribers. Here is one video in which she discusses the difficulties that come with having a G cup.

Yume Hayashi

The lingerie model and former reality TV star Yume Hayashi (aka Yume Yoshida) has also wracked up hundreds of thousands of views for her videos on her channel, which she launched in November 2019.

Shoko Hamada

A more established channel (since January 2019) is by gravure veteran Shoko Hamada, who is now in her mid-thirties (remember when she stripped nude to mark turning three-oh?) and hunting for a husband. In her videos, she mainly models underwear from big retailers like GU, Uniqlo, and Zara.

Rina Koike

A slightly approach is taken by Rina Koike, long a favorite of this blog, in which the slinky star partners with TV broadcaster TBS for a series of videos on a channel launched in October 2018. Specifically, the gradol collaborates with TV announcers to produce ASMR fetish videos.

Recently, she has made ASMR videos for food and drink.

Sakura Otawa

More straightforward in their appeal are the videos put out since July 2019 by the newer gravure idol Sakura Odawa, which tend to showcase her bust and body in workout sessions. Her channel has accrued almost 2.4 million views as of writing.

Sakikichi

This switchover from gradol to YouTuber works both ways. Last year, the YouTuber Sakikichi made a well-publicized gravure debut.

Here is a fairly typical example of her channel, where she goes to get her you-know-what fully shaved and made paipan. Clickbait, much?

They say that television is fake and this story may not convince you otherwise.

Netizens have exposed the beautiful woman who is supposedly an instructor at the Uzumasa Driving School in Kyoto as a gravure model.

Featured on a Japanese TV show as Aimi Yoshikawa (吉川愛未, not to be confused with Aimi Yoshikawa 吉川あいみ, the retired porn star), ostensibly because the driving school is covered by the government incentives aimed at encouraging domestic trips, this Aimi was, in fact, none other than Aimi (あいみ), a mononymous gradol much-admired for her svelte buttocks.

Intriguing, Aimi was actually marketed as a “mystery beauty.” Her date and place of birth were all kept a secret in her official profile, as were her “three sizes” (usually the standard stats that a gradol will include in any introduction).

She released two image video DVDs in 2018 and appeared in several gravure shoots for magazines. She is also part of the BDSM scene, having appeared as a model for a shibari rope bondage show for top artist Kinoko Hajime.

So is this her real job (after all, she had to maintain a stable income in between those occasional gravure gigs)? Or was she hired to be the face of the driving school for the cameras? The mystery deepens…

Probably because of the minor kerfuffle surrounding her exposure as Aimi Yoshikawa, her Instagram account — which has over 120,000 followers — is no longer publicly available.