Can you imagine the surprise if a 40-year-old female model were dating a 20-year-old male idol? But the other way round, it’s just another day in the urban jungle. Especially if you’re a celebrity. Weekly tabloid Shukan Bunshun has scored a minor scoop with an article claiming that singer You (or Yu) Yokoyama of Kanjani…

Regular readers will know that, in between all the news and updates about gravure idols and Japanese porn, or trying out new Japanese adult toys, we love to explore aspects of Japanese adult culture like the history of sex and old love hotels. Showa-era love hotels are truly the best if you want garish colors,…

The fashion model and celebrity Marie has stirred up the perennial issue of the casting couch in the Japanese entertainment world. The 33-year-old, who is half French Canadian and half Japanese, has claimed that she was propositioned when she was 18 by the now-retired comedian Shinsuke Shimada. The encounter is being described as “makura eigyo”…

Is the hair nude making a comeback? Well, the full-frontal nude shoot never went away per se, but it’s a rarer species these days. Have gradols become more risk-averse? Where are the mainstream actresses of the 1990s who had big hits with hair nude photo books (like Rie Miyazawa, Miho Kanno, Eri Ishida, or Saki…

It was a bit of a shock when Yuka Kuramochi, the top Japanese gravure idol and staple subject matter of this humble blog, announced her marriage to pro gamer Fuudo in later 2019 (after years of secret dating). She went quiet after that and is effectively retired from gravure, instead spending most of her time…

It is sometimes tempting to discard music idols as cookie-cutter enterprises whose ranks are filled with identical-looking young women. But at least they are flesh and blood. The models of the future may well not be. Digitally created models or even androids might be the faces of major commercial brands one day. After all, they…

Netflix is ramping up its Japanese-market content, not least successful drama series like The Naked Director (second season coming soon!) and movies like Ride or Die. It is also getting into producing original anime and has even opened an academy for training the next generation of talent. And now it’s created a virtual YouTuber as…

In late April, the internet went a bit crazy with this story of a 39-year-old Japanese man who was arrested and charged with defrauding 35 Japanese women in Osaka. The duped women all thought they were his girlfriend. The man, Takashi Miyagawa, had told them different dates for his birthday so he could get as…

Was this inevitable? Everything seems to be getting in on the non-fungible tokens boom, which has now reached the Japanese adult industry. The legendary shibari (kinbaku) rope bondage artist Hajime Kinoko is going sell an NFT of the latest entry in his “red” series of bondage images — his first NFTs release and his first…

Office romances can be great — but can also get messy. In days past, office ladies (OL) were almost expected, alongside their other duties, to hook up with their future hubbies among the desks of their company, marry, and then quit to start a family. Thankfully, those stereotypical expectations are, if not quite dead, on…