What can gravure idols do after their careers dry up? We have chronicled many intriguing responses to this classic conundrum. But how about becoming a politician?
That’s what the one-time gradol and tarento Chisato Morishita is apparently trying to do.
Originally a race queen, Morishita was a big star in the gravure world and a fairly regular face on TV in the 2000s, winning popularity in bikini shoots that accentuated her slinky body and F-cup bust. After several photo books, however, her career stalled as she entered her thirties. She instead started teaching golf and published a novel in 2015.
She tried to make a comeback as a jukujo idol in 2019 but this seemed to peter out.
She left her agency at the end of 2019 and had a quiet 2020 to reflect on her options. She updated her official blog in January for the first time in a year.
Now aged 39 and unmarried, she is perhaps hoping politics will revive her prospects.
It should be noted that this is currently only a media rumor and Morishita initially responded with a “no comment.” But subsequent media reports yesterday seem to confirm that she will run as a Liberal Democratic Party in the upcoming House of Representatives election for a seat in the prefecture of Miyagi. (Morishita is actually from Nagoya.)
If she succeeds in winning over voters in Miyagi, she will be surely the hottest politician in Japan. (The seat is currently held by a member of the Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan.)
She wouldn’t be the first. Previous gradols who graduated eventually to careers in politics include Ayaka Shiomura, once a member of the Tokyo Assembly who was once jeered by her male colleagues, and — perhaps most high-profile of all — Renho, who enjoys a strong reputation for her fierce approaches that belies her past as a gravure model.
There was once a weird rumor that nude model and actor Mitsu Dan was running for office. She quashed that and instead got married.
The deaf former hostess Rie Saito, as graceful and attractive as her one-time employment demanded, also became a politician.
The major political parties occasionally like to recruit female celebrities to boost support. Mieko Tanaka, an actor, was one such catch, though her career was hit by an alleged adultery scandal, and she later enter local politics in Ishikawa.
Perhaps the wackiest we have seen is former nude performance artist Rena Masuyama, who ultimately did not succeed in her bid to win a seat in the 1996 House of Councillors election as a Social Democratic Party candidate.
Being hot does not mean automatic election (though it does mean an automatic erection — okay, we’ll stop there). The ex-porn star Mai Goto unfortunately failed in her campaign to win public office. Showing off your breasts may get you attention but not necessarily votes, as busty Kana Shindo found out in 2020.
