The 35-year-old formerly curvy gradol has shifted careers by becoming a personal trainer, toning herself in the process into a muscular, athletic, and tanned beauty.

A recent before-and-after viral photo shared by Garen Takizawa really brings home the extent of her physical journey, which she herself announced at the start of 2026. She lost around 17 kilograms in two years by changing her diet and attending a gym.

Rin Takahashi, also known as Rinrin, made her gravure debut in 2014, and was active until around 2023, when she released her second photo book.

We don’t think the Niigata native has officially retired from gravure, since she’s still releasing digital photo books and appearing in shoots for popular photographer Natsuki Higashi (and recently finished fifth in the Summer Style Award in the Bikini Model category), but she’s now making her living mostly as a personal trainer at a gym in Shinjuku (the same gym where she also transformed her own body). Sadly, she only works with female clients.

Her new look and physique may give her gravure career a second boost in her late thirties, as it is certainly one way to stand out in a crowded field (and appeal to femdom fantasies).

This isn’t the first time we’ve witnessed a previously curvy model or gravure idol not just slim down or tone up, but commit fully to a rigorously sporty and athletic body type. Niina Fugo (Niina Nagatomi) is another formerly voluptuous gravure idol who has reinvented herself as a “gym idol.”

We have seen various gym trainers and athletic models like Kyoka Yamashita become famous thanks to social media, though the trend is apparently not as strong as the geongangmi healthy beauty vogue in South Korea.

Of course, many female athletes and sportswomen are also incredibly popular, and frequently moonlight as models. The golfer Minase Ozawa is a particular fav.

While not as famous or popular as female wrestlers, Japanese female bodybuilders are also sex symbols and have even inspired their own sex toys.

But Tanaka is now about to turn 40 and focused on her new career as an actor, so there’s a gap in market for a newbie.

We’ve seen a clutch of ladies recently try to assume the mantle: Anna Nakagawa, Akane Takiyama, Nagisa Watanabe, and Kasumi Mori.

The latest contender is Yumeno Shirato, a graduate of the prestigious Keio University. The 30-year-old has done TV work for KSB and Tokyo MX, but already made her gravure debut back in 2021, which passed us by in the fog of the pandemic. She followed this up with a lingerie shoot in 2023 and a cover shoot in 2024.

After a few digital photo books since 2022, she is taking a big swing now with a major print photo book, Lily, out from Kobunsha on April 21.

It features the slinky model in a range of scenarios, from tennis to the beach, bathroom, and bedroom, and emphasizes her butt and bust in various semi-nude poses.

A hint of her ass cheeks is about as explicit as things get, but it’s still a serious step up from her previous efforts.

We’ve included some highlights from Lily as well as from her recent shoot for the weekly gravure magazine Flash.

The tattoo features a plant running alluringly down her back, culminating in a number on her lower spine. The image resembles a Chinese ink drawing and instantly draws attention to the sensual curve of Miyoshi’s back. She displayed her ravishing new look in a photo shoot for Harper’s Bazaar and Boucheron.

She posted the images on Instagram to her 2.6 million followers with a long message in English

As I go through life, I believe what really matters is whether I can clearly explain, in my own words, when someone asks me “why.” This is not an impulse, but a conviction I have taken the time to arrive at.

From what I felt and saw in my childhood… I learned to endure more and more to keep my parents happy, while my heart was quietly hurting.

When I thought about starting a new chapter of my life at 30, a tattoo came to mind. It is a testament to my resolve to live true to myself.

This tattoo is another version of me, supporting my way of life from behind. It is not just about the beauty of the design; the thoughts and memories I poured into it are also engraved there.

I cannot see my own back directly. But I believe it is the place that carries all my inner emotions and memories, serving as the axis of my body. That is why I put my heart into “making the flower that is myself bloom” right there.

And in realizing this project, “MY BODY as ART”, it was Boucheron that placed the utmost trust in me.

I deeply resonate with and place strong trust in Boucheron’s ethos—drawing inspiration from the diverse things living in this world, and how that brilliance coexists with the person wearing it.

Once again, I want to express my deepest gratitude to Boucheron and Harper’s BAZAAR for their collaboration.

My new life begins here.
In this vast world, I want to do everything I can for my destiny.
So as to never be ashamed of myself.

And I am also grateful to my parents.
Thank you for bringing me into this world

A celebrity tattoo might seem like a minor bit of news, but it’s actually become quite a talking point this week in Japan (making it a marketing win for Boucheron and Harper’s Bazaar).

While no longer the preserve of the yakuza, it is still somewhat rare for mainstream celebrities to get large tattoos (Neru Nagahama is another recent example, though her tattoo is tiny in comparison, albeit in a provocative position). This shows how comfortable Miyoshi is in her career position and with her body.

Miyoshi, who turns 30 in June, has been on a mission to vamp up image and transform herself into a sex symbol and more mature star.

We think it began with her jaw-dropping lingerie cover shoot for Anan magazine in 2020.

She also did a nude scene in the movie Honshin, in which she stood under a shower and showed us her left boob. The scene existed primarily for that purpose, from what we can tell.

Her major roles in the period have been in tamer mainstream productions like Alice in Borderland for Netflix and as a sexy female general in the upcoming late-action adaptation of Kingdom, but she also found time to do non-nude sex scenes in the film Sensei’s Pious Lie.

Miyoshi also got both nose and belly piercings at some point, and now she’s got a tattoo on her back. Though her private life is scandal-free (the most dramatic episode her been breaking up with long-term boyfriend Ryoma Takeuchi, who is now dating Shiori Doi), she is very consciously projecting a “bad girl” image (though one still capable of landing endorsements with big brands).

It all begs the question: What next for Ayaka Miyoshi?!

She has transformed herself into a savvy businesswomen by building a brand that puts her own popularity as a model at its center. Now aged 37, Kojiharu can claim business triumph with the sale this month of her apparel company heart relation for ¥3.5 billion ($22 million) to e-commerce company yutori.

She created heart relation in 2020 to run her (oddly named) brand Her lip to (which she founded in 2018) and Her lip to BEAUTY. She set to receive the payment in two tranches, along with a small percentage of yutori’s shares. She previously sold 51% stake in heart relation to yutori in August 2024, but this new sale completes the process of turning heart relation into a subsidiary of yutori.

Like when she sold Her lip to, Kojima is expected to remain closely involved in the company, since so much of its success is down to her personal following among women. While we know the level of fandom among male otaku that AKB48 idols have, it’s often forgotten that they develop female followings as fashion icons. Kojiharu was able to leverage that into an apparel brand and a hugely successful post-graduation career (likely inspiring the similar efforts of fellow AKB alum Rina Hirata — and possibly former SKE48 idol and porn star Yua Mikami’s fashion projects).

Today, she’s firmly in jukujo territory but still looks ravishing, as a recent swimsuit photo shoot demonstrated.

The Saitama native remains unmarried, though she is rumored to be effectively co-habiting with an IT entrepreneur in a condo in Roppongi, central Tokyo. It’s thought they have been together since the late 2010s (and was first reported by a tabloid in spring 2018) and that he has played a close role in advising her on her business ventures, though he is five years younger than her.

And now the rumor mill is working overtime with speculation that the couple is about to tie the knot after Kojiharu secured the future of her brand and her bank balance.

The TV show Abema Prime recently hosted a discussion about the merits of punishing customers, something that may become possible in the future with proposed changes to current legislation under review.

The author, former Nikkei reporter, graduate if Keio University, and ex-porn star Suzumi Suzuki (pictured) was one of the guests. She said: “People ask me if I regret becoming a porn actress, but it depends on the day. Girls in Kabukicho, when they feel fulfilled by visits to host clubs, probably think, ‘I don’t want a daytime job.’ But if you catch a cold, you can’t work. On tough days, you might think, ‘Society is to blame,’ so it’s difficult.”

She continued: “While almost no one enjoys organ trafficking, prostitution is different. I recently attended an AV-related event in Taiwan, and it’s difficult to determine how many of the attendees originally aimed to become AV actresses or were forced into it due to economic circumstances. Even within a broad spectrum, the colors change.”

Her personal take on the issue was that “decriminalizing prostitution would make it easier for people to keep an eye on it. Labor unions and STD testing could also be thoroughly implemented. Personally, I think decriminalization is better.” However, she added, “if punishment is to be imposed, both parties should be punished. Currently, there are no penalties for the buyers. There are many books on why girls sell their bodies, but none asking why men pay for sex. It may be self-evident to men, but sociologists haven’t considered this point.”

Natsumi Sakai, a former House of Representatives and member of the Centrist Reform Alliance, supports imposing penalties on buyers. “The analogy of a gradient is easy to understand. Sometimes it can be viewed positively, but some women suffer trauma and become depressed. Politics must consider what can be done to eliminate such situations.”

Regarding the treatment of sex workers, Sakai argued, “Their rights must be protected so that they don’t suffer secondary victimization when they speak out. The human rights of those currently working should be protected.”

What should be done about the sex industry? “There have been cases,” Suzuki said, “where regulations were eliminated all at once through a top-down approach. Policing in Kabukicho has also become stricter, but what level of scrutiny is envisioned beyond that? Distinguishing between forced prostitution and freely done prostitution is no easy matter. There’s prostitution freely entered into but where an invisible pressure is at work, and prostitution that started off as forced but later came to develop a self-pride. I believe I was exploited by my newspaper employer just as much as I was as an AV performer.”

Maki Geimaki, the head of of SWASH, an organization that opposes punishment for buyers from the perspective of sex workers, also appeared on the show. “Creating a system is crucial. Having connections makes a huge difference. The prostitution law was adapted to create the Law for Supporting Women in Difficulty, but it’s not in a state where sex workers can easily use it.” She added, “Our approach is not that sex work is a good thing, but rather, we ask how we can support individuals with their specific problems? There are many things that cannot be done alone.”

Now working as Akari Koda, she had just done her first shoot in about three years, appearing in the pages of Weekly Playboy.

It wasn’t a one-off. Koda has leveraged that shoot to keep building momentum in the competitive world of gravure, which is always looking for the next talent as the major publications seek to keep readers interested at a time when other images are just a click or swipe away.

The 22-year-old Koda, who actually made her debut in the entertainment industry at the tender age of 13, has since appeared in lingerie and swimwear shoots for Flash and Young King. The latter issue is the cover shoot, while the Flash shoot was accompanied by two digital print books.

With her slinky body offset by a sultry, worldly face, Koda is set to become a summer gravure star.

She has also done some acting in the past and currently has a supporting role in a drama series called Place to Go Home, which started this month.

Her face actually reminds us of the model and actress Kōki (Mitsuki Kimura), who is about the same age but has enjoyed a much higher profile due to her parents (Takuya Kimura and Shizuka Kudo).

The 27-year-old Saejima is a newbie on the gravure scene, having debuted just last year, but is already set to release her first nude photo book on April 20.

Unfortunately, initial previews are censored so we don’t get to see those lovely nipples, but we look forward to perusing the goodies after the book comes out next week.

She already released two semi-nude DVDs last year and has yet another scheduled for release in May. Such image videos remain popular even in this age of streaming and are reasonably cheap to produce, allowing idols to reward their fans with long and intimate content (Saejima’s first DVD is a whopping 171 minutes long).

Here are some highlights from last year’s shoots.

Of course, the real questions we want to know are: What hospital or clinic does Nana Saejima work at, and how can we get her to treat us?!

The market for delivery health services (as call-girl services are euphemistically known) alone is ¥1.4 trillion. The newspaper describes Japan as a “sex industry superpower” whose growth has been fostered by a “Galapagos-like” legal system.

The Prostitution Prevention Law only covers actual full sexual intercourse between men and women. Other sexual services are considered legal, contributing to the development of the uniquely large sex industry.

Any visit to a place like Kabukicho in Shinjuku, central Tokyo, will reveal establishments with signs for soaplands (a bath-centered brothel), fashion health (a kind of brothel), delivery health, and men’s esthe (another euphemism for a brothel).

According to a survey on the nighttime economy market published last December by Yano Research Institute, the market size for delivery health services, where women are dispatched to hotels or homes, is estimated to have reached ¥1.4 trillion in fiscal 2024.

The 1956 Prostitution Prevention Law defines prostitution as “engaging in sexual intercourse with an unspecified partner in exchange for or with the promise of receiving payment,” which is prohibited. Past court precedents have limited this interpretation of sexual intercourse to “vaginal intercourse between a man and a woman.” Services that involve using hands or mouths to induce ejaculation, or simulated sexual intercourse, or which do not involve a man and a woman, do not constitute legally prohibited prostitution.

This has created the circumstances for a huge number of services that circumvent the law (at least nominally — they may well offer vaginal intercourse unofficially). Such services fall under the jurisdiction of the Entertainment Business Act and are categorized as “special businesses related to the sex industry.” The act regulates operating hours, locations, and entry for those under 18, but businesses can operate legally just as long as they register with the prefectural government.

According to data on entertainment businesses published annually by the National Police Agency, the number of “storefront” businesses such as soaplands and fashion health clubs has been in long-term decline. On the other hand, businesses such as delivery health services that dispatch women to hotels or homes designated by the customer are increasing, currently reaching about 20,000 — far exceeding the number of storefront businesses.

There’s a simple reason for this: phones. We now all have instant access to websites and messaging services, making it easy to contact a service, select a woman, make special requests, reserve a location and date, and so on. In the past, a lot of that negotiation went on in person at establishments.

Under the Entertainment Business Act, a soapland is classified as a bathhouse with private rooms, with a business model defined as “providing services involving contact with customers of the opposite sex in private rooms within the bathhouse.” However, even if a customer and an employee engage in sexual intercourse in a private room, the premise is that it’s a personal act performed by mutual consent between the employee and the customer based on attraction or romance. Even presupposing that sexual intercourse takes place, the establishment does not officially facilitate prostitution.

Attorney Sho Wakabayashi, an expert on legal issues related to sex work, is quoted by the Asahi as saying, “The police are certainly aware that actual sexual acts occur routinely in soaplands and similar establishments, but prosecutions under the Prostitution Prevention Law are rare, and this has been a state of tacit approval for a long time.”

But the police are cracking down on malicious scouting/recruitment gangs, most notably the campaign against the nationwide network Natural and Access, and this has led to large-scale closures of soaplands.

According to Wakabayashi, the background to this is less a crackdown on soaplands and brothels than the strengthening of regulations following the designation of scouting companies as “anonymous, mobile criminal groups” (tokuryu), and the social problem of unscrupulous hosts who burden women with large debts (because host clubs often have systems allowing customers to pay later) and then force them into prostitution to pay those debts off.

“There were times when I was filled with despair,” she said of her experience during the trial.

Himeka (also known as Himeka Nakamoto), who currently works at a club in Osaka and is famous for her high-earning hostess lifestyle, was sued by a former client in March last year.

Kakeru Kikuchi, the former CEO of a venture capital firm that went bankrupt, made various accusations of “romance and marriage fraud” on social media and in court, demanding ¥38.5 million yen in damages. He claims that Himeka’s “pretense” of romance persuaded him to shower her with money or gifts, or spend a lot at her club with enticements of a genuine relationship. Kikuchi claims he thought they were going to get married.

However, the case concluded with a ruling in Osaka in February that threw out Kikuchi’s claim. The victory will no doubt pleasure hostesses and similar kinds of establishments based on so-called affective labor. The case was a potential litmus test for whether the allure of romance and affection offered at hostess clubs could stand up in court. In other words, if Himeka had lost the suit, it might have opened the floodgates for various other lawsuits in the future from aggrieved customers.

“Honestly, it was incredibly long, lasting a year and a half. Now, finally, I feel rewarded. I feel like I’ve conveyed something to everyone,” Himeka said on the TV show Last Call.

“There were so many things I wanted to say and explain during that time, but even if I said them then, people wouldn’t believe me, or they wouldn’t understand. There were times when I was filled with despair, wanting to end it all.”

The 25-year-old admitted that the road to victory was mentally taxing, but she revealed her true feelings, saying, “Now that the result is in, I feel relieved and rewarded.”

Himeka was due to publish a book last year but its release was canceled. The lawsuit may been the reason for this.

Afterward, Himeka updated her Instagram, writing about “three things” she wanted to convey after the recent turmoil.

The first was about the reality of working in the nightlife industry.

She warned, “Please don’t think of this world as just a glamorous place.” She pointed out that high income and valuable experiences are possible, though added a caveat. “You can meet people you wouldn’t normally meet, have experiences you wouldn’t normally have, and earn incomes you wouldn’t normally get. But there’s always a reason for it, and there’s a price to pay.”

“It’s a world where you’re constantly surrounded by danger and temptation, and sometimes you can stray far from a normal life. That’s why I want you to understand that reality before you step into this world.”

But hasn’t someone like Himeka been responsible for promoting the glamorous side of being a hostess? She is conscious of this and offered an apology for the skewed view of hostessing she has promoted through her social media posts in the past. “I take responsibility. I’m sorry,” she wrote. But unless she quits hostessing or stops posting any pics in which she looks glamorous, this apology may ultimately ring hollow.

Secondly, she addressed online defamation, an issue also faced by female celebrities and even digital characters.

“Words leave a deeper impression on people’s hearts than you might imagine,” she said, pointing out the potential for even a casual remark to hurt someone deeply. “Online, there’s a mix of truth and lies. And in reality, some people have their lives destroyed by words. Words spoken lightly can weigh heavily on someone’s life. I want you to remember that,” she urged.

Thirdly, she sent a message to those suffering from online defamation, just like herself. “The online world isn’t everything. It’s not the only thing in your world. What’s truly important are the people who support you and the life you have ahead of you,” she emphasized.

“Social media is only one part of life. And rumors and opinions about people are forgotten much faster than you think. So don’t give up on your life because of social media. Whatever happened in the past doesn’t mean your life is over. Circumstances change. You can change your life. That’s why you need to be strong.”

Himeka starting working as a hostess at the age of 18 at Club Reims, which was opened by hostess-turned-businesswoman Shingeki no Noa (Minori Maeda) in Osaka. She also made her gravure debut and published a digital photo book in 2023.

Virtual Entertainment, the operator of the VTuber agency VSPO!, updated its website on April 10, giving its response to defamation and other actions against its affiliated talent.

Just because the characters are virtual and so don’t have “feelings,” the copyright holders are not going to stand idly by while netizens defame their creations.

Regarding the character Nazuna Kaga (pictured), the agency announced, “We have identified the person who engaged in defamation and slander by name, unfairly damaging her social reputation and infringing upon her personal dignity, through a request for disclosure of sender information via court.”

They explained, “We conducted negotiations with the identified individual, but as we were unable to obtain a sufficient apology or settlement offer, we terminated those negotiations and filed a lawsuit for damages with the Tokyo District Court, and we have now obtained a favorable judgment.”

In this particular case, while acknowledging that “instead of directly using defamatory language, phonetic substitutions were employed,” they cautioned that “if the target of the defamation can be identified or the content of the defamatory post can be reasonably inferred from the context, surrounding posts, and hashtags, then naturally, the person who posted it cannot avoid responsibility.”

Trolling and defamatory posts often substitute or censor words in an attempt to avoid legal action, but VSPO! shows that it can still take people to court. The agency has a zero-tolerance policy regarding defamation, stalking, and other aggressive forms of behavior, going so far as to set up a Defamation Countermeasures Committee.

It is simultaneously pursuing multiple lawsuits and negotiations against posters, site operators, providers, and platform operators regarding several similar cases and copyright infringement cases involving sexually explicit illustrations.

“We will continue to pursue similar legal proceedings and claims for damages (including criminal proceedings in some cases) in the future. We have already identified individuals in several cases and are currently pursuing out-of-court and in-court claims for damages.”

VSPO! describes itself as “a Next-Gen Virtual-esports Project dedicated to inspiring our fans by embracing new challenges through the universal languages of video games and esports. Our VTubers participate in a diverse range of activities, including streaming, esports tournaments, collaborations with anime and other cultural media.”