Call us morbid, but we have a strange fascination with the afterlives of gravure idols.
This is a competitive, cruel industry, one where young women are discarded after two or three years. From gracing the covers of the weekly tabloids like Spa! and, if you’re lucky, releasing digital or print photo books, you might descend quickly into obscurity when the editors and people behind the scenes decide to make someone else a star for another brief run.
Given the open secret of the casting couch, it is hardly a giant leap of logic to see why some, if not many, gradols go on to second (or, let’s be honest, have parallel) careers as hostesses, call girls, and even porn stars.
Most notably, there is the case of Shoko Takahashi/Takasaki, whose own ventures into amateur prostitution to supplement her meagre income led to her termination from her agency and, ironically, a bold and successful career in adult video.
But Shoko is the exception that proves the rule, having become more famous and popular after leaving regular gravure. Most do not go on to such illustrious and lucrative further careers.
Most gravure idols do not make much money. Only a handful who have big photo book releases from the major publishers can expect decent salaries from their agencies, and even that may not last long. Instead, they need to start acting or appearing on TV as general tarento to complement their work while they are still young. It’s another open secret that many idols and models are available at sugar daddy and dating clubs, if you have the means to pay for their company.
Or they need to have a plan for another career after they quit or are forced to retire when their agency does not renew their contract. We have detailed a few examples over the years on this blog.
Here’s another one to add to the growing list.
Yuri Shibuya (渋谷ゆり, sometimes 渋谷由里) was once an up-and-coming gradol, having joined the industry in 2012. She suddenly retired in 2015 and vanished for a while.
Where is she now? She has spent those intervening years honing both her language skills (she speaks Japanese, Chinese, and English) and her body. She’s today NESTA-PFT-certified fitness trainer.
Naturally, she’s also a very attractive fitness trainer, a status that she smartly exploits for all its marketing potential through social media: she has over a million followers on Instagram, and a glance at her feed explains why.
Aged 30, she is impressively ripped and, let’s be frank, smokin’ hot.
She demonstrates her workout routine in various YouTube videos on her official channel. Just imagine what that body could do in the sack.
Apparently she’s friends with top gravure star Nanoka (who is the same age) and they go on smoothie dates together. Jesus, fancy seeing this fine lady riding a bike around the streets of Tokyo! That rack is almost criminal.
This is what she looked like back in the days of her gravure career. Quite the upgrade.
Of course, muscular and sporty gradols are nothing new per se, and someone like Reika Saiki already got to this muscles schtick down. Likewise, models and tarento like Aya Asahina and Anne Nakamura are well known for their sporty bodies. Kazusa Okuyama and Yume Hayashi are two more prominent examples of late, spending as much time in the gym as in front of the camera.
Others, like the very flexible Risa Izumi and such athletes, went the opposite direction: a career in sport before tipping into graure.
Perhaps such gradols as baseball talents Ami Inamura and Sario Okada (pictured below) will follow in Yuri Shibuya’s footsteps.
