The AKB network of idol supergroups faces a particular challenge in these COVID days of maintaining revenue when meet-and-greet and even concerts are not realistic.

The idols remain popular, of course, and field requests to appear in the weekly magazines or release photo books.

Mina Oba, for instance, recently appeared in a photo shoot for the weekly magazine Flash.

The lingerie shoot showed off the 28-year-old modest yet sensual bust. Thank you, Mina, for taking our minds off the emerging third wave of corona infections in Tokyo.

It’s probably about time for Team K’s leader Mina Oba to graduate and this photo shoot indicates her maturity. A member of the group since 2013, after transferring from AKB48, she is also an actress.

We have some sad news to report.

Normally the release of a new photo book by an idol would be a cause for celebration, but Mai Ishioka’s (石岡真衣) upcoming “After the Rain” is apparently to be her last.

One of our long-time favorite gradols, Ishioka has announced that that she is “graduating” — i.e., retiring from the industry.

This can be more one of several things: her career is stalling and so her agency is dropping her at the end of her contract; she is fed up with the industry and her career, and wants to do something else (or get married, which is hard to do while remaining a gradol); or she is switching agencies and needs to change her professional name for contractual reasons.

Ishioka has worked as a gravure idol for around nine years and is now 30, when gradols have to transition from a young look to a more alluring, sensual jukujo “older” style.

“After the Rain” was shot in Okinawa and comes out on December 1 from Kobunsha, which also publishes the weekly magazine FLASH, who first ran the story of Ishioka’s retirement in an issue last week.

Though she has released plenty of digital photo books and DVDs, “After the Rain” is only her second print photo book.

We hope to share highlights from “After the Rain” when they become available.

Besides COVID and the change in prime minister, the biggest story of the year in Japan is probably the massive box office success of the anime version of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba.

The popularity of the franchise has skyrocketed and, inevitably, we have got adult parodies, since parody is such a regular component of the porn and toy market here.

First there was an early porn parody starring Mitsuki Nagisa.

Now Tama Toys, the leaders in this kind of toy, have come along and conjured up a superbly made parody onahole.

The Kimetsu no Yaeba Fangs Onahole is playing on the popularity of yaeba snaggleteeth. Point upper canines are seen as cute and desirable among female celebrities, who display them prominently. There was even a yaeba idol group once.

Tama Toys have cleverly combined this with hints of Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, which boasts a demoness mouth that is ready to suck on your cock. Hopefully she won’t bite and drain your blood! The character is perhaps meant to be Nezuko Kamado.

The toy features not only a mouth and the titular fangs, but a (semi-extractable) tongue and throat — all ready to chow down your member.

The is available now globally from our friends at Kanojo Toys.

It has been a somewhat peculiar November in Tokyo.

The annual changing of the leaves has duly appeared, transforming the trees around the city and creating piles of crisp leaves to jump in.

It has also been unseasonably hot on some days, almost like an Indian summer.

And it has been windy, with blustery days sending the fallen leaves into swirls in the air.

All very Instagrammable, yes, but so what? Well, we spotted this unfortunate side effect of the windy days.

A TV presenter on Fuji TV’s show Mezamashi TV was giving a live report on the weather when the wind blow hard against her. Kayako Abe (阿部華也子) was wearing a long skirt at the time, which was whipped against her. Viewers were treated to a striking outline not only of her slim legs and thighs, but what seemed to be her paipan shaved camel toe.

Ever the professional, the 24-year-old Kayako Abe just smiled and continued with her work, but the netizens discovered the clips and promptly began the noble task of analyzing them.

We found a similar example of this in September when model and actress Sumire showed off more of her assets than planned more than during a workout clip.

Abe has been in the news recently for another reason: last reason, a tabloid broke a minor scoop — a weird story that she was at a drinking establishment in Kabukicho way back in 2018 with a female friend when they were picked up by two guys, and Abe apparently kissed one of the men. Oh the horror!

One of the staples parts of being a gradol, or gravure idol, is posing for a photo session at Sofmap in Akihabara.

The women stand there, invariably scantily clad in a bikini while members of the media snap away. This is usually part of a press conference to promote some kind of release or appearance.

The photos are ubiquitous: a gradol posed against the squared advertising on the wall behind her.

Just occasionally does a photo session stand out.

In this case, gravure idol Rin Sakura (桜りん) was going through the standard motions of a session — in this case, to promote a DVD, her first such release in three years — but fans later spotted an Easter egg, of sorts.

Her bikini top was not as close-fitting as might have been assumed. In fact, she was inadvertently revealing her nipple.

Granted, you have to really zoom in and then brighten the image, but her nipple is clearly there.

Sakura is known as a particularly flexible and supple lady, having honed her body through gymnastics.

In a highly competitive industry, gradols need to have something special to last the course and build a career. Perhaps Sakura was borrowing a tactic from Hikari Hashimoto and deliberately letting her breast be seen. It’s done the trick in terms of generating more digital ink about her.

Here’s a video from the press conference — unfortunately, without any zooming-in.

When Ken Shimura passed away earlier this year from complications due to the coronavirus, many groped for ways to described the death of such a major figure in popular culture. “The Japanese Robin Williams” was about the best anyone could come up with.

Some platitudes aside, we also remember how risqué Shimura’s comedy shows were.

Feminists are (rightly) shocked when they look at clips that are not from the distant past, but just a few years ago.

Nude or scantily clad women appear on the show for the sole purpose of gags.

We wanted to share one particular highlight from his show in which a stunning woman — probably a gravure idol — strips down to her lingerie for no real reason other than to raise some viewers’ eyebrows and temperatures. Yes, this was a segment of the show aimed squarely at the dads in the audience!

In the recently rebroadcast archive clip, Ken and a friend watch a sensual office lady type undressing in her window. She takes off her shirt and skirt, revealing a ravishing body in a lingering pose.

Well, no one was laughing in the Tokyo Kinky household when we watched this, but we were certainly gripped.

We have searched around but are still unable to identify the busty, buxom lady in the striptease scene. If anyone knows, please share!

Sumire Yokono of NMB48, the Osaka sister group of AKB48, is celebrating her nineteenth birthday with a braless photo shoot.

Yokono has a hot, slinky body that is sensual and leggy that belies her youth. But we’ve so far only seen her in lingerie or swimwear.

Now she’s gone semi-nude for her first photo book, “Anata no yoko no” (literally, Next to You — but also a play on her name, meaning “Your Yokono”), which was shot in the sunnier climes of Okinawa and comes out on December 16 in Japan — shortly after Su-chan’s nineteenth birthday (meaning she was a comely 18 when the photos were shot).

She is seen clutching her hands to her chest, her furry sweater hitched up to show off her bust. In another shot, she is leaning over to expose her braless bust, which barely covered by her unbuttoned dungarees.

In yet another image, she is wearing a revealing version of a cheongsam (qipao) dress.

Preview images have appeared in the weekly magazine Flash, as is typical to promote upcoming photo books. Su-chan also appears in the current issue of B.L.T. magazine.

Sumire, as Mariah sang, all we want for Christmas is you!

Our friends at Kanojo Toys, your one-stop store for all things adult about Japan, are having a Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale.

You can get 10% off any item you order (even if you order multiple times, which regular shoppers like us will appreciate). To claim your discount, use the code BF2020.

The sale covers every toy in store, from onaholes and masturbators old and new to sex dolls (silicone, blow-up, plush), vibrators, dildos, costumes, porn, dakimakura hug pillows (and covers), used panties, smell fetish sprays and lubes, and more. Kanojo Toys has a catalog with thousands and thousands of adult items, many of which you cannot buy internationally from any other store.

Visit Kanojo Toys to browse the range of toys available.

The discount is valid through December 3.

While the ongoing situation with COVID is serious, the Kanojo Toys team tells us that the shop is operating pretty much normally. With Christmas right around the corner, now is the time to reward yourself for surviving this difficult year!

While most recent news about Japanese porn has been dominated by the very welcome return of Asahi Mizuno, we wanted to highlight another example we found that shows how part of the industry operates.

Once again, a minor idol from a group relatively unknown in the mainstream has been persuaded to switch from music to porn.

In this case, it’s 19-year-old Sayaka Takayama (高山さやか), formerly of Girl’s Horizon (aka Garuhora), who has made her AV debut under the name Nana Yaotome (八乙女なな) mere weeks after leaving the group.

The 180-minute release (MIFD00140) comes out on December 13 via the always-reliable Moodyz, a label that specializes in such crossover debuts and has helped launch a fair few careers in this way (not least Shoko Takahashi and Yua Mikami’s).

Takayama was a member of Girl’s Horizon from September 2018 to November 2020.

While Takayama/Yaotome is unlikely to enjoy a career as illustrious as Asahi Mizuno, we introduce her debut here to show once more the fluid intersection that exists between Japanese porn and idols (especially music or chika/underground idols, though also sometimes gravure idols).

Japanese adult toys have a growing reputation outside the country, thanks to the innovative efforts of Tenga and the quality of onahole sleeves.

But not enough attention is given to the other aspects of the market, not least the vibrators and dildos, which are there to offer pleasure to guys, gays, girls, and more.

And occasionally a dildo comes along that deserves as wide an audience as possible.

Like this Mouth Dick Dildo from Ligre Japan, now available globally from our friends at Kanojo Toys.

The name should grab you. Yes, this is essentially that: a cock that goes in your mouth, but not in the usual way. Instead, you bite down on the mouthpiece end of the toy and then you have an awesome cock toy with which to probe and penetrate a partner (vaginally or anally).

Check out the girth of that glans! And then the generously sized bumps and veins along the shaft.

The Japanese subtitle for the toy is “barking dildo,” since the idea here is that it transforms you into a dog with a snout that can sniff deep the behind of a partner (just like canines do).

Whether role-playing as a dog appeals or not, the Mouth Dick Dildo ensures you are right there in the penetration action.

This toy actually fits into a trend among Japanese adult toys for animal-themed dildos, as we have explored before.

The fashion model Koki, the daughter of Takuya Kimura and singer Shizuka Kudo, continues to make a splash.

Despite being only 17 years old, she has posed half-naked for the January issue of Elle Japon magazine.

The highly sexualized and provocative shoot features Koki striking poses with her legs and thighs exposed. In one photo, she is nude from the waist up, her modesty protected by a bag held against her breasts.

We are hardly what you could call conservative, given the kind of themes and content we explore, but we do wonder what her parents, for all their status and experience in the entertainment industry, are thinking.

That said, many gravure idols and music idols start their careers at similar ages — and with even more erotic swimwear or lingerie shoots.

What makes this more complicated is that the shoot was taken by Koki’s older sister, Cocomi.

Koki certainly looks like she is having a good time in the shoot.

She made her debut at the age of just 15 with a shoot for Elle Japon, and has since graced many covers of major magazines, and fronted advertising campaigns for various brands.

These days, we aren’t going out much, but we might be persuaded to make an exception here.

Tokyo Weekender published a photo report on the recently opened SOD Land, which is publicized as a porn theme park.

As previously reported, the complex opened in the Kabukicho area of Shinjuku in central Tokyo back in October, and features five floors devoted to adult video.

Tokyo Weekender’s report emphasizes the “safety” aspect of the visit, in how the site has adapted to the risk of the coronavirus through face masks, disinfecting visitors from head to foot, and a special UV filter in the high-tech ventilation system that kills off viruses inside.

Thus protected, you can start things off by getting a souvenir photo taken with genuine SOD porn stars.

Then you can head up to the second-floor salon, where porn actresses stand at circular tables (for now, behind screens), ready to chat with you. The Syain Bar on the third floor is a more conventional place for eating and drinking, but again with porn stars serving you.

The most erotic and unusual experience is waiting at the Silent Bar, where you can enjoy some wordless communication with scantily clad adult performers (you can write messages for them to view through the glass).

For more photos and details, check out the report on Tokyo Weekender.

It’s also nice that SOD Land is selling, in addition to the expected wealth of porn titles, the recent series of SOD onacups, the Basara. If you can’t get to Tokyo to buy these popular toys, you can also get them online with international delivery.

Gravure idol and actress Miyu Kitamuki has posed for her most explicit photo shoot to date, a semi-nude spread in which she is fully naked but her modesty is hidden by carefully placed body parts — not least, the classic “hand bra” (tebura).

The pictures appear in her first photo book, “Koiyou” (恋夕, Love Night), which came out last week from Kodansha. Previews were published in Weekly Playboy magazine.

The 20-year-old Kitamuki got her start in the entertainment industry in 2018 and, as an actress, her career highlights so far include the NHK drama series Idaten. She is already the veteran of countless lingerie and swimwear shoots.

We have long been an admirer of Miyu Kitamuki — especially her slender, alluring legs and mature looks — but have mixed feelings about this shoot.

It’s a bold move for someone aiming to break into the mainstream, and we hope it brings her lots of, ahem, exposure. But in at least one of the shots she seems so bony, her pelvis jutting out, and her ass looks flat. We wonder if she/the photographer could have done that shot differently to make her body, which we love, more flattering.

“Koiyou” is competing during this busy end-of-year season against several other splashy photo books, including ones from Sumire Yokono and Hikaru Aoyama, a final one from the retiring Mai Ishioka, a comeback release from Mao Miyaji, a book and calendar from the older Asami Kumakiri, and another from Marika Matsumoto.

So simple, so effective, we wonder why they (or we) didn’t think of it before.

The Hole Perfume for Sex Toys is just what its name suggests: a perfume for your adult toys, since aroma is as erotic as visuals and tactility.

Sure, there’s a wealth of other smell sprays out there already, serving all tastes and fetishes, from sweat to pee, cleavage, ovulation, scalps, and even face masks.

But this item is a bit different — and a bit more straightforward. It keeps the scent itself simpler — either a soap or rose — and is specifically for enhancing your sex toys (whereas other smell sprays, which tend to made by Tama Toys, are meant for a range of uses — yes, certainly onaholes but also for dolls, costumes, partners, your own hands, and so on).

The makers suggest pairing the perfume with masturbator sleeves, bust toys, and clothes used over toys.

Incidentally, we have also seen a similar item before that was a dedicated scent spray for breast/bust toys.

The Hole Perfume for Sex Toys is now available from our friends at Kanojo Toys, along with a whole bunch of other smell fetish items for all tastes and needs.

Given the time of year, perhaps a mistletoe-themed spray next? Or Christmas cake?

Japan has a declining population. The government, in all its wisdom, has decided to do something about this.

Helping women maintain careers after giving birth? Fixing the toxic work culture that requires gruelingly long hours and male-dominated management?

That can wait. The government is hoping robots will fix things.

As recently reported in the mainstream media, the government plans to allocate a whopping ¥2 billion next year for giving out to local authorities that implement programs where residents find love — assisted by artificial intelligence.

In fact, about half of the prefectures in Japan are already involved in matchmaking services, which you might think should be a private affair.

But regular matchmaking is not enough: now AI is here to save the day and use smarter algorithms to match the right people.

Of course, even if more people do get together in Shimane or Tochigi or wherever, it may very well boost the marriage rate, but that won’t automatically fix the birthrate problem. The reasons people are not having babies is not really — and certainly not mainly — because they can’t find love per se. The government seems to be tying the marriage and fertility rate exclusively together, but the issues affecting the lack of babies are far more wider-reaching and won’t get better with just some expensive AI tech.

This isn’t the first time that robots have been involved in matchmaking in Japan, as we previously blogged about, so we doubt that AI can be a game-changer this time.

What’s next? Will the government send robots into our homes to “help” us complete the insemination process?

We have long been an admirer of the actress of 33-year-old Yuki Sakurai, a feeling seriously amplified after we saw her lengthy and explicit sex scene in Call Boy that we blogged about just over a year ago.

We mentioned at the time her previous sex scenes in a film called The Limit of Sleeping Beauty (2017).

We have finally gotten around to looking at this properly and wanted to showcase some of the highlights.

Yuki Sakurai, who plays a magician’s assistant, is nude in several scenes from this somewhat peculiar film, showing off her butt, breasts, and pale, slim body.

There is a particularly good scene on a bed where she sits in the lap of a man as they have sex, her perky nipples on firm display. He is also shown going down on her and, inevitably, sucking and licking her nipple.

There is also a lesbian kissing scene between Sakurai and another woman in a club.

Readers with longer memories might recall Yumi Ishikawa, the former nude model who launched a highly publicized campaign against footwear discrimination in Japan. She also has a nude sex scene in the film where a man has sex with her on a sofa while Yuki Sakurai watches.

The end-of-year photo book rush just got a bit busier with the debut release from Anri Gento (源藤アンリ).

While not particularly well known as a model or celebrity, Gento has notched up a fair number of television appearances recently. It’s perhaps a little surprising that such a relative newbie would land her own photo book publishing deal with Shogakukan, though she has seized the opportunity with aplomb.

A guaranteed way to generate headlines and online interest is to take things a step further. Anri has stepped up to the challenge swimmingly by taking off her clothes.

Coming out December 7, “ANRI” is not a fully nude photo book, let’s be clear, but Anri is completely naked in at least one shot and shows off her attractive back and butt, and the 25-year-old Hokkaido native shows off some side boob in another photo.

In a competitive marketplace, we wonder if Anri has got what it takes to last the long haul, but she’s certainly making a quick splash early on.

If you’ve watched the Japanese Netflix drama Alice in Borderland, you will have admired the lead actress, Tao Tsuchiya.

The 25-year-old is a real cutie and the series should hopefully increase her international profile.

We were also pleased to see in some of the more erotic scenes in the series.

In one scene, her naked, athletic stomach gets lingeringly licked by a man, which was nice to watch, though he then proceeds to rape her, which we did not enjoy watching.

The scene hints that it will show us her breasts but then holds back, meaning Tao Tsuchiya, who is also a talented dancer, has yet to make her nude debut.

The eight-episode Alice in Borderland (今際の国のアリス) is based on the manga by Haro Aso. The lead role is played by Kento Yamazaki, while members of the supporting cast include Riisa Naka, Ayaka Miyoshi, Ayame Misaki, and Aya Asahina.

At this time of year, Japanese adult makers and brands like to release “lucky boxes” and similar bundles containing random packs of toys.

This is in imitation of the more general Japanese retail custom of fukubukuro, or lucky bags.

It means you can get some really good deals, as long as you don’t mind not knowing the exact items you will get (although this is also fun and exciting — restoring the mystery of Christmas before people started to make distributing gift lists).

We have been looking at a few examples this year and the Tama Toys Otoko no Ko Crossdresser Costumes Lucky Box caught our eye as particularly good value for money.

Available globally from our friends at Kanojo Toys while stocks last, the assortment means you will have plenty of choice whenever you want to look your most feminine and cute over the New Year period.

Inside the box you find 20 or more items. For the price, that means each costume is only costing you about $6 — which is a pretty fricking awesome bargain, if you ask us.

Tama Toys is pretty much the leader when it comes otoko no ko fetish subculture items in Japan. Literally meaning “male daughter,” otoko no ko refers to crossdressing and transgender activities that are more casual and not defined by a gay/straight binary. This makes otoko no ko items ideal for all range of experiences and tastes, from first-timers who want a bit more choice to the more hardcore crossdresser.

The singer and actress KOM_I is known for her provocative career choices, from doing lesbian sex scenes in the Netflix show Followers to releasing nude photo shoots not once — but twice. Somewhat queasily yet erotically, one of the shoots even involved blood and knives in addition to her pale, naked flesh.

The 28-year-old Wednesday Campanella singer has now shed her clothes again for a photo shoot for Vogue Japan, the highlights of which she posted on her own Instagram account a few days ago.

The shoot has KOM_I nude in a garden, facing off against a classic sculpture while wearing a gold mask.

Yes, all very KOM_I — and perhaps with a touch of the coronavirus age thrown in for good measure.

The two photos she shared with her 170,000 followers do not show full-frontal nudity and her nipples seem digitally removed or covered by patches, so this is technically more modest than her previous exploits. The rest of the shoot for the Vogue interview is flamboyant and bizarre, as you’d expect from this singer, but sadly not nude.